How I became interested in alternative cleaners.
In the early '90s, I was transferred by my employer to Buffalo, New York as an area manager. One of my first duties was to visit companies in the area to introduce myself. On this particular day, I was going to a chemical company in Niagara Falls. I was still learning the area, so getting around usually meant getting lost in this era before the ubiquitous GPS systems that we have (and I love) today.
As I drove down the main street toward the building, I noticed a large sign across the road that announced in important flashing letters that the air today was SAFE. How strange, I thought. I parked and found my way past the security guard to meet my contact. He escorted me through a large clerical work area with what looked like hundreds of desks populated by workers toiling away at I knew not what. On the corner of each desk was installed a hook, and on that hook hung a gas mask. Yes, a gas mask! I asked my contact why. He told me that in case of a chemical accident, an alarm would go off and the employees would don those masks to protect themselves from possible chemical poisoning. This was very bizarre! And what was even more unsettling was that I didn't have a mask! What must it be like, I thought, to work in that kind of environment? Now I understood the big sign over the road.
Well, I was quite glad to leave that building, and it was with relief that I got in my car and headed back towards my office in downtown Buffalo. At least I thought I was. But as happened all the time in those days, I got lost! I found myself in a neighborhood called Love Canal. I had heard of it. In the mid-1970s, the neighborhood became the subject of national attention when it was discovered that Hooker Chemical Company buried over 40,000 tons of toxic waste there decades earlier. The city of Niagara Falls bought the property from them, and built a neighborhood of homes and a school on and around the site. Families living there began to experience high levels of cancers, birth defects, miscarriages, and other diseases. When the Federal Government determined that the toxic chemicals were the cause, the neighborhood was evacuated and the families were relocated.
As I drove down the main street toward the building, I noticed a large sign across the road that announced in important flashing letters that the air today was SAFE. How strange, I thought. I parked and found my way past the security guard to meet my contact. He escorted me through a large clerical work area with what looked like hundreds of desks populated by workers toiling away at I knew not what. On the corner of each desk was installed a hook, and on that hook hung a gas mask. Yes, a gas mask! I asked my contact why. He told me that in case of a chemical accident, an alarm would go off and the employees would don those masks to protect themselves from possible chemical poisoning. This was very bizarre! And what was even more unsettling was that I didn't have a mask! What must it be like, I thought, to work in that kind of environment? Now I understood the big sign over the road.
Well, I was quite glad to leave that building, and it was with relief that I got in my car and headed back towards my office in downtown Buffalo. At least I thought I was. But as happened all the time in those days, I got lost! I found myself in a neighborhood called Love Canal. I had heard of it. In the mid-1970s, the neighborhood became the subject of national attention when it was discovered that Hooker Chemical Company buried over 40,000 tons of toxic waste there decades earlier. The city of Niagara Falls bought the property from them, and built a neighborhood of homes and a school on and around the site. Families living there began to experience high levels of cancers, birth defects, miscarriages, and other diseases. When the Federal Government determined that the toxic chemicals were the cause, the neighborhood was evacuated and the families were relocated.
Love Canal neighborhood. Niagara Falls, New York
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That was what I saw as I drove down the streets of Love Canal. Block after block of tidy bungalows and neatly manicured lawns.
But nary a sign of life. The government arranged for the houses and yards to be kept up, right down to curtains in every window and the front porch light burning. And nary a sign of life. Not a car, garbage can, tricycle, dog, or even the sound of a bird. Silence broken only by the sighing of the wind through the trees... With nary a sign of life. |
I thought to myself,
What are we doing to ourselves?
It was that experience that started me exploring alternatives to the household chemicals we use every day. I found that it wasn't necessary to have one cleaner for your floor, another for your kitchen sink, another for the stove, and yet another to clean your bathroom, and on and on ad infinitum... I found that you can keep your house clean and fresh smelling with simple ingredients that don't require warning labels. That experience in Niagara Falls started me down a path that I'm still traveling today. And I invite you to begin that same journey. Come along with me!
What are we doing to ourselves?
It was that experience that started me exploring alternatives to the household chemicals we use every day. I found that it wasn't necessary to have one cleaner for your floor, another for your kitchen sink, another for the stove, and yet another to clean your bathroom, and on and on ad infinitum... I found that you can keep your house clean and fresh smelling with simple ingredients that don't require warning labels. That experience in Niagara Falls started me down a path that I'm still traveling today. And I invite you to begin that same journey. Come along with me!