Buying a product? Read the label

YOU MAY recall that a few weeks ago Linda asked how she could repair her bath coating after it had been badly stained by drain cleaner. We have kept in touch and she has sent me a note saying the drain cleaner has a small warning on the bottle saying “for external use only”, and that it contained sulphuric acid.

To me “for external use only” means don’t drink it, but I suspect that in this case it meant it was for use in external drains that didn’t have a fancy finish. Sulphuric acid is also a real nasty and I have advised Linda to dump it at a recognised and authorised dump site. I struggled to find any reference to the product on the internet, so be careful what you buy, and ensure you read the labels.

On the subject of dumping, I would appeal to everyone to dispose of their waste responsibly. One of our alternative sources of water in future will be by drilling into the aquifer, so we certainly don’t need to poison this natural resource. Hopefully the City of Cape Town is controlling the dump sites properly, but let’s all do our bit.