Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand Aug / Sept 2017: The Kids & Family Issue | Page 8

W
hen I first meet Peter and Jeng
Wainman, founders of Pipper
Standard, what strikes me the most
is their sincerity. In their Bangkok office, Mr.
Wainman reaches out to shake my hand. As
he meets my gaze with sky-blue eyes, I no-
tice his tie with a pattern reminiscent of the
Morton Salt Girl and a white cap with yellow
lettering that reads, “Pineapple Power.” Soon
thereafter, I meet his wife, whose small stat-
ure is balanced by a wide, friendly smile, and
then I’m introduced to the equally warm and
welcoming staff.
Everyone settles around the conference ta-
ble as though we were convening for supper,
and, in a clear, confident voice that sounds
like Kevin Spacey, Mr. Wainman tells the story
of Pipper Standard.
It all started, he says, with a severe aller-
gic reaction he had some years ago here in
Thailand. The skin on his back had become an
angry red, and neither he nor his wife knew
what was causing it. It turned out to be an al-
lergy to a Thai fabric softener, which prompt-
ed the disposal of his entire wardrobe —
and the search for detergents and fabric
softeners that wouldn’t incite the pain of
another allergic attack.
Though they searched high and low, the
Wainmans could not find effective detergents
in Thailand safe for use on sensitive skin. As
with many other business ideas born from
personal need, they decided to scratch their
own itch by creating Pipper Standard, a brand
of high-quali-
ty, hypoallergen-
ic household
cleaning
products.
But the
impetus
to launch
Pipper
Standard wasn’t
only self-serv-
ing. Over the past
few decades, allergies
have become more and
more common, and
children are some of
the hardest hit. One
in five people in the
United States now
suffer from aller-
gies or asthma — a
total of 60 million
Americans. In
the U.S. from
the 1960s to the
1990s, the rate of
children with allergic der-
matitis has increased three-fold.
8 WANDERLUST
Here in Thailand, trends are similar.
Allergies now affect an estimated 18 million
Thais, or about 25 percent of the population.
In the greater Bangkok area, the rate of chil-
dren suffering from allergies is an astounding
49 percent, an increase of about a third from
the late 1990s
With the incidence of allergies rising at
alarming rates, Pipper Standard believes
there is an urgent need for chemical-free
cleaners around the globe:
“We believe that, as a society, we have be-
come overexposed to chemicals and that this
overexposure relates to the big increases seen
in allergies. While you can’t control all envi-
ronments, with Pipper Standard products,
you can at least control the amount of chemi-
cals and allergens in your home,” he explains.
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