Stupid Imus

I turned on the TV about a week or so and caught the tail end of Diedre Imus on a show, promoting her new book about eco-friendly cleaning.  I saw 30 seconds, literally.  I went upstairs and reserved the book at the library, via my computer, because I am always interested in new cleaning tech especially if it's green.  My husband picked it up for me yesterday and I read some of it last night.  I say "some" because it was so STUPID I had to put it away.  I kept skipping through it and spent  wasted and hour with it.  I was so mad that I felt like sharing.  This woman, Deidre Imus, wife of That Imus, is apparently just as dumb as her husband, though a few decades younger.  The entire book is a not-so-cleverly disguised commercial for her own cleaning products company.  There is no new info in it.  She says over and over to use the same few things anyone interested in green cleaning knows: vinegar, lemon juice, salt, baking soda.  She disparages every known chemical, including rubbing alcohol.  I didn't realize rubbing alcohol was such a threat.  Indeed, chlorine from our faucets and showers is going to kill us all.  Stupid.  She apparently spent- or more likely paid someone to spend time looking up the effects of every tested chemical compound and that made up most of the book.  What she doesn't say is what enormous quantities of chemicals are given to test subjects (usually lab rodents) to bring about said effect.  All of us who took basic chemistry, actually most people who remember basic science, know that.  And warning informaton is on the labels of things we buy.  (e.g. eye irritant; flush with water if skin contact occurs; use in well-ventilated areas only; etc.)  She's either really stupid or using fear tactics to sell her commercial, I mean book.  I think the argument can be made for genuinely stupid. 
   She writes about "acidic and highly toxic" toilet bowl cleaners, then continues saying they may contain "chlorine bleach and other potentially lethal toxins."  This makes it sound like she doesn't have even a general understanding of pH.  Most people know that chlorine is a base, not an acid, right?  And I believe acidic toilet bowl cleaners are a thing of the past.  Our municipal water companies don't want us putting strong acids in the water system, it dechlorinates it.  Chlorine and chloramine are intentionally added to kill the germs and nasties in water, to make it safe for us to drink.  Dechlorinating our water supply is something terrorist are interested in, because so many people would become sick.   Not good.   And some salad green growers are washing their produce in a light chlorine solution.  Remember the spinach E. Coli outbreaks?  The idea is to us from that.  Chlorine is used for the good of the public.  
   My uncle is an analytical chemist.  He used to say that anything in large enough quantities can kill you.  In paramedics class we learned the awful story of neglected babies who suffered from water poisoning (& hyponatremia).  They'd been fed so much water to stop their cries that their electrolytes were depleted, sometimes with fatal arrhythmias.  So indeed, even too much water can kill you, but most people couldn't physically drink that much water.  Just as most of us will never come in contact with the level of chemical toxins to injure us.  Mrs. Ismus wants you to believe it's in the air in your house from cleaners.  She makes a wild statement about the number of janitors who have died, and links it with a statement about toxins found in cleaning chemicals.  She doesn't point out that they were doing something that warning label tells you not to, like: mixing chemicals, using them at full strength when they should be diluted, cleaning for along time in an unventilated area, or getting something spilled on oneself and maybe not washing it off right away.  I had a neighbor who mixed ammonia and chlorine in her washer, once, accidental mustard gas in the basement.  So I know people still do it.  ER and HazMat runs for similar cases were enough to tell me people don't read labels and will do stupid things.   She also cites the EPA website for looking up chemistry, in a way that leads people away from thinking how the government regulates the sale of chemical cleaners.  (And OSHA governs their use in the workplace.)  And she says over and over about how dangerous everything is for our children, and as moms we are so busy, and don't have time to do more (so just buy her pre-packaged cleaner).  I want to be clear that I am NOT saying chemical cleaners are great and we should use them all the time.  In fact I do not buy every new cleaner that comes out and I use simple components for most things: detergent, water, bleach.  I do feel that cummulatively we are poioning our environment and we need to make a positive impact on the personal level.  But I don't believe I am poisoning my family with detergents or bleach.  Or rubbing alcohol.  Her argument is that our daily home environments are life-threatening if we use what we bought at the store.  It's BS.  We all need to exercise a little common sense.  If we educate ourselves, people like this will be easily ignored, instead of becoming rich by fear mongoring.  I got the book to get more 'green' ideas.  Instead this woman wants to tell me not to destroy the good bacteria in my bathroom.  There are good and bad bacteria in our guts, good and bad bacteria in our fish tanks, but there is just bad bacteria in our toilets, trust me.  I hate when some idiot wants to scare people to sell their product.  It's not capitalism.  It's closer to terrorism.