In the Beginning ...

The siren goes off in the telephone exchange and the red lights start flashing.  It means there is an emergency coming in.   I plug in my wire and a woman is screaming in my ear.  Her toddler has just drunk purple methylated spirits from a bottle in her floor-level laundry cupboard and is lying on the floor, turning blue, dribbling foam, and going rigid.  I plug in the second wire that will connect her call to the National Poisons Unit and dial the number. I keep her on the line while I use another set of wires to dial through to the ambulance services and I somehow manage to get the hysterical woman’s address while both calls are connecting. There’s no opportunity for a three way crossover under the system we use, so I have to let the woman talk to the poisons unit and relay the information myself to the ambulance people so that all involved can be up to speed in real time. An ambulance is dispatched while I am talking to their operator, and the poisons unit manage to get the woman to start speaking coherently.  I have to monitor the connection to ensure it doesn't break, and I have no choice but to listen to the heartbreaking sequence of events while a child dies on a kitchen floor, in terrible pain, in unbelievably stupid circumstances.  It is 1977, I am seventeen, and in pieces.  More than two weeks pass before I can even talk to my supervisors at work about what happened. I never told friends and family about it for many years. Memorizing the phone number for the National Poisons Unit was one of the first things I had to do when I started as a trainee telephone operator. Trainees weren’t allowed to start work until they had that number burned into their brains.  I still remember it. I always will.  We had to phone that number a lot, back then, for various reasons; kids ingesting their parents medication, accidental overdoses, kids chewing washing powder, dogs having fits from drinking out of toilet bowls etc. It was horrible, and to this day, I always put the loo seats firmly down, I cannot tolerate the thought of having methylated spirits in my house, and I don’t take tablets unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.  Nowadays, we have tamper-proof lids on most of the horrors we routinely bring into our homes to clean them, so that children don’t have the same opportunity to kill, burn or otherwise maim themselves. It’s a start.  But its still a gamble – a roll of the dice on human and animal safety since most of that stuff still comes in plastic bottles that can leak or split.  Ok, people say that they put their cleaning fluids out of reach, in a safe place, high up, etc, etc.  But why have something in the house that warrants that kind of care and dedication to keeping off limits at all, when it doesn't need to be in your home at all? Most cleaning fluids are cheap and cheerful, and that is half the problem.  The other half of the problem is that current labelling laws mean that manufacturers of the kind of stuff we use in our houses that can poison, maim or kill don’t have to list the ingredients.  They are only obliged to provide a warning on the label and instructions on how to act if the substance is inhaled, comes in contact with the skin, or is ingested. Therefore, nobody really knows (without research they don’t typically have time or inclination to do) what they are really bringing into their homes.  They only know what to do if the worst happens.  Whichever way you cut it, that’s a gamble. How about this for an analogy – how many people would keep a loaded gun in a cupboard in a house where there are children, even if the children couldn’t reach it?  Keeping a gun is one thing.  I grew up with gun culture, I have guns myself, and I keep them locked up until I want to use them, but I would never, in a million years, keep a gun loaded as a matter of routine, even locked away.  It’s not something people generally do. But when you think about it in those terms, deadly chemicals are not a lot different.  They are, to all intents and purposes, weapons as deadly as loaded firearms in their capability to injure or kill.  Most people don’t know that chlorine, for example, a widely used household chemical, was in fact the first agent of chemical warfare.  Used in World War I, it formed the major component of a gas that was developed as both a blistering agent to the skin and to cause temporary blindness and inflame the nose and throat of the enemy.  Did you know that empirical research shows women with breast cancer to have significantly higher levels of organochlorides (chlorine by-products which do not naturally occur) in their breast tissue than those who are cancer free? If you want to know more about the devastation associated with chlorine and its associated byproducts, check out a report here. Interestingly, scientists will not handle common household chlorine without protective gloves, face masks, and adequate ventilation. Chlorine can be found in most cleaning agents, including dishwashing detergents. The deadly effects of chlorine are heightened when the fumes are being heated, e.g. in a shower or spa pool.  Chlorine can be found in our drinking water and in our swimming pools too.  That’s a cupboard full of loaded guns, if ever there was one. It’s all very well saying that in smaller concentrations, chlorine isn't harmful.  Tell that to the women whose breast tissue was found to contain chlorine by-products. My business – Darlings Who Do Limited promotes and uses safe and healthy alternatives to cleaning products that have been proven to contain ingredients that are harmful to health and the environment.  We bring no loaded guns into your house, no roulette wheels, nothing except safe, gentle alternatives that protect your home, your family and your cherished pets.  We prove, through our work in your home, that the cheap and cheerful nasties that strip your skin and contain "fragrances" specifically designed to interfere with your ability to smell accurately (by releasing nerve-deadening agents or by coating your nasal passages with an oil film) CAN be replaced with effective alternatives that won’t put you at risk.  Unlike some chemical cleaning agents, the products we use will break down safely in municipal waterways and pose no threat to marine and other wildlife. I care very much about what sort of planet this will be, in years to come, about the legacy to be inherited by future generations.  Will the earth remain sustainable?  Will the coming generations that continue to try to make or keep it so be healthy and happy? What can be done RIGHT NOW, to ensure health, survival, joy and a realistic ongoing vision for a beautiful planet? I’m doing my bit to drive that forward by using safe (and equally effective) cleaning products that are SLS and paraben free and use a unique blend of antibacterial and other essential oils.  If more people choose that option, we can collectively make a significant contribution towards the reality of a rich sustainable planet and optimized animal and human health. Making a start is easy!  You could do it from next grocery day, by leaving the toxic stuff on the supermarket shelves and putting some baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar into the trolley instead.  Better still, let Darlings Who Do Limited come and clean your house, and show you how to do it safely for yourself, your family, your cherished pets, and for the health of the planet we live in.    A child dying in agony is the most terrible thing imaginable. For it to happen at home, in an environment the parents assume to be safe, is unthinkable.  Its where my journey started, if I'm honest, and I'm 100% committed to doing what I can, by using and promoting safe cleaning solutions, to ensure that it never happens again.  Let us help you do the same.