What happened to Gunk?

[Clifford Pope]

Got me idly musing that neat washing up liquid can have a degreasing effect, wonder if a mix of washing up liquid and paraffin might work? Might try and sneak some our of the house and try.😀

There's another example. New safe lead-free low-calorie free-traded vegetarian nut-free washing up liquid doesn't work  properly even to wash dishes. It's got no "bite" to it, unlike the traditional fluid. It's useless at shifting grease and fat, and uses twice as much.

You often get the first warning that something has been tampered with and down-graded when it starts to smell different or they alter the colour. TCP, Germolene, moth balls are examples of things that don't work as well now.

[simonbav]

My Aug' 2018 expiry TCP still smells reliably bloody awful. Oops 😄

[diffwhine]

Its so nice to read that I'm not the only grumpy old git on here... And I'm not even that old. I plan to get grumpier, so watch this space...

[Craig T]

Best hand cleaner I ever used was GoJo Orange. It's a lovely white soap with fine abrasive grit in it and smells of oranges surprisingly. Really good stuff although not commonly available.

Those buckes of hand wipes you get from Screwfix are useful as well. If I've been elbow deep in an engine or gearbox, I normally do a pre-clean with those before heading indoors to use the orange cleaner. Apparently leaving hand prints on the door handles and white PVC doors is not acceptable.

Craig.

[richardhula]

What's wrong with sawdust and carbolic 

[Wittsend]

Are we allowed sawdust

It's interesting (to me as an ex-chemist) that many of these products mentioned here are derived from a class of organic compounds - cresols.



Derived from coal tar and have the characteristic smell of creosote, TCP, Gunk and others.

Another class of compounds derived from oil refining are the Naphtols, Benzene, Phenol and Toluene (the smell of old Evostik) type solvents that are good "degreasers" and amongst other things - the moth ball smell.

Many products were considered to be therapeutic but have since been found to be carcinogenic and we are not allowed to splash them all over 

[Worf]

And yet millions are spent promoting revolting air fresheners, clothes fresheners and deoderants that are known to cause breathing difficulties for many people and can attack your immune system longterm

[Wittsend]

It was somewhat amusing/ironic that in the '80s they replaced leaded petrol with unleaded petrol. Initially the lead was replaced by up to 25% benzine. Arguably a more toxic compound than tetraethyl lead 

Now the benzine has long gone, replaced by ethanol, derived from food crops 
You couldn't make this nonsense up !

[Alan Drover]

Carbon Tetrachloride was a good degreaser too.

[diffwhine]

I'm enjoying this thread...

[Old Hywel]

Shampoo and sugar works well on greasy hands. Fairy liquid, handwash too.
Whether the sugar helps chemically or as an abrasive I don't know.

[Alan Drover]

There was a cleaner called Thawpit which IIRC, contained carbon tet.

[Worf]

When I was a kid with a cold I was told to sit with my head over a steaming bowl of Friars Balsam, with my head under a tea towel. Think it was benzene based. Made your eyes water a bit.
70 years later, I am still here

[Alan Drover]

I was subject to that treatment with Vick dissolved in hot water.

[Rusty66]

My teacher used to go through a couple of Gauloises Caporal (the blue old packets, long banned) during French classes. But that's opening a whole new topic ...

As has been mentioned on here a couple of times. The sad thing is that they indroduce something that's supposedly so much better but if you look (or think about it) carefully it quite obviously introduces something as - or even more - hazardous or detrimental to your or the collective health. Still they feel great about it, tell you there is no other option and go on in this fashion ad infinitum.