Chlorine gas was used for chemical warfare during World War I. You can make it easily in your own home by accidentally combining chlorine and ammonia in a misguided effort to boost cleaning power. Aren't you clever?
Here are 5 ordinary household cleaners that Consumer Reports says should be handled with care:
- Undiluted ammonia can burn skin on contact. Do not mix with products that contain chlorine bleach—it makes a poisonous gas.
- Undiluted chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is very irritating to eyes and lungs.
- Drain, metal, and oven cleaners with sodium hydroxide (lye) can burn eyes, nose, and throat tissue on contact.
- Toilet bowl cleaners with hydrochloric acid can cause serious eye damage and skin burns.
- Furniture and floor polishes, and glass cleaners with naptha can cause headaches and nausea.
Our frugal cousins at CR have also provided an extensive list of non-toxic alternative cleaners that you can mix up yourself. Vinegar, is there anything you can't do?
How to make your own (less-toxic) household cleaners [Consumer Reports]
Five everyday cleaning products that can cause you harm [Consumer Reports]
Good article Joe. The schools in this county need to take note. Do you know that they clean the desks in the schools with Chlorox bleach wipes? Between the poptarts for breakfast, processed food for lunch and students breathing bleach, no wonder so many have behavioral problems. Bleach was banned in Germany awhile back, when is this country going to do the same?
ReplyDeletemy grandmother used lye to make soap for most of her 94 years on this earth and I suspect that there was plenty of bleach and ammonia in the house too. Everyone lived. Maybe people have become so dependent on others to think for them and the lawyers to sue for stupidity.
ReplyDeletegood ole baking soda.
ReplyDeleteWhile in nursing school in NY in the 1970's a friend of mine cleaned for a weathly lady long since deceased. The house in Westchester county was very old and full of valuable antiques.
ReplyDeleteThe lady was a stickler for vinegar not for health reasons but because the harshness of the cleaning products would ruin her things.
My friend used to say how beautiful and perfect the 50 plus year old wood floors were because only a few times a year were they mopped and that was with water only.