[lbo-talk] DIY movement

Andy andy274 at gmail.com
Sun Jan 23 19:55:12 PST 2011


On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 7:02 PM, Fernando Cassia <fcassia at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Andy <andy274 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> One advantage with some of the less product-intensive approaches is
>> that you can control the ingredients much more.  Product labeling
>> regulations are very innocent-until-proven-guilty.  The funny thing is
>> that most of the time it doesn't take any more time, and often less
>> money.
>
> Oh yes, there´s very sound HEALTH based reasons to do your own
> cooking, and at the lowest possible level: ie bake your own bread, but
> do it using natural yeast not pre-made "mixes" of the "just add water"
> kind.

Perhaps I should clarify: I'm talking about household cleaning products.

One of the things you can learn working in scientific and industrial environments is the gap between safety and labeling mandates between workplaces and the consumer market. OSHA requires that every container be labeled with the non-commercial name of its contents, and that MSDSs -- Material Safety Data Sheets -- with a safety precis be available at their location. Evidently these regulations get enforced rather fiercely of late at universities, though I'd hunch that Dennis P. doesn't see a lot of OSHA inspectors at his worksites. You can easily google for MSDSs on just about any product you can think of.

Obviously things are a lot more lax in the consumer world -- you have to know to look for something like an MSDS, and there's nobody providing you with a respirator. Generally the concentrations of things like sodium hydroxide (aka lye) are going to be lower, like they are in Comet, but if you can get the job done with something cheap and downright edible like vinegar, why not?

Any politics in this? I was under the impression that providing information useful to households and one's health were gummint projects for societal uplift, but evidently I'm confusing this with fascism.

-- Andy



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