„Peruse the labels of the things you are cleaning with right now: Do you see the words POISON, WARNING OR DANGER anywhere? Most likely you do.
When you clean, you are distributing these dangerous chemicals all over your house, cleaning your dishes with them, washing your clothes with them, letting them taint the air you breathe.
How can a home full of toxins ever be called ‚clean‘?
Is toxin too strong a word for our standard store-bought cleaning product? No, it is not.“ (p. 214)
For an article on ‚Maker‘ Culture and Green Living, I’m reading a selection of how-to-guides and personal accounts of urban gardeners, do-it-yourself dads and arts-and-craft activists.
One of the best books – so far – is ‚Urban Homesteading: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City‘, written by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, a young LA couple.
On 320 pages and in very precise, dense writing, the book gives you tons of well-researched, practical and surprising advice on how to grow vegetables in tight spaces, raise chicken in your backyard, can fruit, sun-dry tomatoes or build a greywater watering system for your garden.
I don’t plan on doing ANY of this in the near future – but the book is written in such a pleasant, knowledgeable and likeable tone that I would still recommend it for anyone who has plants, likes to experiment in the kitchen… or simply misses biology class. 🙂
4 of 5 stars. Recommended. (Link to Amazon.de)
and two final, follow-up quotes (p. 216 and p. 215):
„The words ‚green‘ or ’natural‘ in the name [of a cleaning product] don’t mean anything at all. Those terms are not regulated. Warnings like ‚Avoid contact with skin‘ and ‚Use in a well ventilated area‘ are hints that these products are not the gentle daisy juice their labels might lead you to believe.“
„Serious scientists, not just New Age paranoiacs, are beginning to associate these common household cleaners (or perhaps the chemical cocktail they create in mixed use) with cancer, asthma, allergies, immune system disorders and reproductive disorders. And that is just in us humans. They are also tainting the waters, and affecting the entire ecosystem.“
