Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
We hear a lot of talk about "hazardous chemicals".
Unscrupulous contractors who can't compete on a level playing field because either they have no sales ability, or their cleaning or business skills are lacking have been throwing those two words around for a while now.
Sodium hydroxide (lye soap or "caustic") has been used for years to dissolve fats.
It is used at water treatment plants by the hundreds of gallons to raise the PH level of the water.
It is in many cleaners including some toothpastes.
Drano is almost all NaOH.
For dumpster cleaning and restaurant back doors it is a great cleaning tool to dissolve grease permanently.
Alone and high concentrations it can dissolve a dead body in weeks, bones and all.
BUT, as used in our industry the levels of concentration are no where near toxic.
Pure Oxygen is deadly and will kill you in minutes. But no one in their right mind would consider eliminating oxygen from use because used in the right concentration we need it to live.
How does that fit into our industry?
For example lets say you put three cups of NaOH and mix with water in a one gallon sprayer. Now that's a pretty decent mix for cutting grease.
Now you clean the entire back entry with 1/3 of that gallon. Now the back door area of the restaurant is clean as a whistle.
You've used one cup of NaOH. If it took you 20 minutes to clean it you've just diluted it with another 100 gallons of water.
If it hadn't been on the dirty floor I'd drink that.
As a matter of fact, that same percentage of Sodium Hydroxide is allowed by the FDA as a food additive.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows sodium hydroxide as a food additive in levels not to exceed 1%.
Look for yourself here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts178.pdf
Surprised??????
How about this. If you really want to make sure it's completely neutralized take a sprayer of Hydrochloric Acid diluted the same amount, spray the area and rinse just like you did with the Caustic.
Do you know what the Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrochloric Acid make?
Salt water.
Here is the reaction in super concentrated form-------instant salt and water. Harmless.
We are not polluters. We are cleaners. We educate ourselves on proper techniques and ratios to make our cleaning safe and effective not only for the environment, but for our employees and our own children.
It's time to show the contractors and anyone else who tries to eliminate competition or sell equipment by deceitful methods that we will no longer be represented as something we are not.
Unscrupulous contractors who can't compete on a level playing field because either they have no sales ability, or their cleaning or business skills are lacking have been throwing those two words around for a while now.
Sodium hydroxide (lye soap or "caustic") has been used for years to dissolve fats.
It is used at water treatment plants by the hundreds of gallons to raise the PH level of the water.
It is in many cleaners including some toothpastes.
Drano is almost all NaOH.
For dumpster cleaning and restaurant back doors it is a great cleaning tool to dissolve grease permanently.
Alone and high concentrations it can dissolve a dead body in weeks, bones and all.
BUT, as used in our industry the levels of concentration are no where near toxic.
Pure Oxygen is deadly and will kill you in minutes. But no one in their right mind would consider eliminating oxygen from use because used in the right concentration we need it to live.
How does that fit into our industry?
For example lets say you put three cups of NaOH and mix with water in a one gallon sprayer. Now that's a pretty decent mix for cutting grease.
Now you clean the entire back entry with 1/3 of that gallon. Now the back door area of the restaurant is clean as a whistle.
You've used one cup of NaOH. If it took you 20 minutes to clean it you've just diluted it with another 100 gallons of water.
If it hadn't been on the dirty floor I'd drink that.
As a matter of fact, that same percentage of Sodium Hydroxide is allowed by the FDA as a food additive.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows sodium hydroxide as a food additive in levels not to exceed 1%.
Look for yourself here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts178.pdf
Surprised??????
How about this. If you really want to make sure it's completely neutralized take a sprayer of Hydrochloric Acid diluted the same amount, spray the area and rinse just like you did with the Caustic.
Do you know what the Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrochloric Acid make?
Salt water.
Here is the reaction in super concentrated form-------instant salt and water. Harmless.
We are not polluters. We are cleaners. We educate ourselves on proper techniques and ratios to make our cleaning safe and effective not only for the environment, but for our employees and our own children.
It's time to show the contractors and anyone else who tries to eliminate competition or sell equipment by deceitful methods that we will no longer be represented as something we are not.
