What's in a name?

Just a little thought for the day

So far I have put up just a couple of posts about natual cleaning products but I am well aware that I am walking over a lexicographical minefield.

First of all, natural.  What exactly does that mean?  While defining it might be fun I do know that it should not be used to mean that a products is automatically safe to use, non-toxic or in other ways benign.  Borax is a great cleaning agent, derived from natural mineral deposits but you would not want your kids or pets messing around with it.

Next - chemicals.  this ia whole nest of controversy waiting to happen.  I know that everything is a chemical.  It matters not whether a product was dug up from the ground, given a quick dust off and popper straight into a box of whether it was brewed up in a complex, industrial process, they are all chemicals.

The difficulty comes on how to  differentiate correctly between the unpleasant, potentially harmful, industrially derived sort of chemicals and the ones that are in teh air around us, or in fact, are the air around us.