(FORTUNE Magazine) – ALCOHOL-FREE MOUTHWASH Most mouthwash contains 14% to 27% alcohol, which makes it doubly risky. Some research links extensive use of mouthwash with alcohol to oral cancer, and kids find the brightly colored liquids so attractive that hundreds accidentally get sloshed on as little as two ounces of the stuff every year. Two new alcohol-free mouth rinses -- Clear Choice from Bausch & Lomb and Rembrandt Mouth Refreshing Rinse from Den-Mat of Santa Maria, California -- are safer and, since they are colorless, potentially less appealing to children. A 16-ounce bottle of Clear Choice sells for $2.99. Enough Rembrandt to make a quart and a half of mouthwash comes in a 16-ounce bottle for $5.50.

ANSWERING PHONE Here's a cellular phone that takes messages too. Fujitsu's PCX phone has a built-in voice chip that lets it function as a cross between an answering machine and a pager. If there's no answer, a female voice politely asks you to punch in your number and then thanks you for calling. (If the phone is in use, however, you'll hear a busy signal.) The PCX can store up to five numbers and display them for callback. PCX owners can even screen calls by deciding whether to answer when a number they recognize appears. In spite of its many features, the PCX takes up little space in your pocket or purse. At 8 1/2 cubic inches and 7.4 ounces (with its slimmer battery), the phone is about 25% smaller than Motorola's groundbreaking MicroTAC Ultra Lite ($945), still the lightest on the market at 5.9 ounces. The PCX sells for $1,295 with the thin battery, good for 50 minutes of chat, or $1,245 with a larger battery that doubles the talk time. Both are available now in California, Ohio, Michigan, and Georgia; they go national in March, along with a power pack that uses AA or camcorder batteries.

SOUNDBITS Bored by the bleeps and bongs your computer makes when you boot up or get an error message? Microsoft's SoundBits replaces all that with music or sound effects and lines from cartoons or movies. You can add sound to other functions too. Each of the three versions has 50 sounds and runs on IBM- compatible PCs with Windows 3.1 and a sound board. The cartoon package draws from classics like The Jetsons and Yogi Bear. When you exit Windows, Yogi might say, ''Very good, Boo Boo. Now what do we do for an encore?'' The movie edition has lines from the likes of The Maltese Falcon and The Wizard of Oz; the musical one includes 36 instruments from banjos to Indonesian bonangs. Price: $40 per package.

TINY FAX TRANSMITTER Billed as the world's smallest fax sender in an upcoming edition of the Guinness Book of Records, the Pocket Faxxer is the size of a three-by-five index card and just three-quarters of an inch thick; it weighs only 5 1/2 ounces. The transmitter, by Telecraft Industries of Brooklyn, can send text to both fax machines and alphanumeric pagers when plugged into a standard phone line. (It can't send text to number-only pagers, and -- like computer modems -- it won't work with some office and hotel phone systems.) The Pocket Faxxer has enough memory to hold 14 pages of text, but its small keyboard is arranged alphabetically rather than in the usual QWERTY fashion -- so it's most practical for sending short memos. While the paperless transmitter can't receive faxes, it can get access to computer databases and display E-mail messages from other Pocket Faxxers -- or from IBM-compatible PCs using special PC Link software and a standard modem. It also functions as a personal phone directory, calculator, and alarm clock. The Pocket Faxxer is $499; add $50 for PC Link.