Handle with care

SIR – My local supermarket has just sold me a product whose pack warns that it is “very toxic to aquatic life, causes serious eye irritation, may cause allergic skin reaction and respiratory irritation”. I must avoid breathing dust, gas, mist, vapours and spray, and let no contaminated clothing out of the workplace. If I swallow it, I must call a “poison center [sic]”.

Dare I even open my pack of ballpoint pens? David Askew

Woking, Surrey