It’s about time we switch from toxic cleansers to safer and available alternatives.

Funny, but we are addicted to the routine use of extremely hazardous chemicals to clean our homes. Of all these, none is more dangerous to nature than the stuff we use to clean our sinks, toilet bowls and pans. Phenyl is declared “hazardous” under India’s environmental regulations. Industries must look after the phenyl and phenolic compounds they generate in industrial processes or get punished.

Then, paradoxically, we allow millions of householders to buy phenyl from the hardware stores or supers and pour it down with great abandon to get rid of bathroom odours and messy floors.

All that muck then goes directly into the natural environment where it kills almost everything that comes into contact with it, especially the fish.

Organic wastes including body wastes get attacked by microbes which are nature’s scavengers. These microbes break down human wastes, but in the process release bad odours. Cleansing chemicals basically kill off the action of the microbes by killing the microbes themselves and substituting the bad odours with their own strong smells. Everyone knows when a bathroom has been cleaned with phenyl. We all feel something has been thoroughly cleaned if it gives off a strong cleansed odour.

Killing off microbes, however. is pointless because their populations are several trillion trillion times the population of human beings. More importantly, microbes are nature’s scavengers, set in by natural processes to break down waste. Every time wastes are deposited, these microbes will congregate and multiply.

In recent years, a new class of cleansing agents have appeared which recruit the services of beneficial (not pathogenic) microbes for dealing with human wastes. They are called “Effective Microorganisms” or EM, for short. EM has been around in the market now for more than a decade. That’s enough time to establish its credibility. (The internet has hundreds of sites and information.) I am a regular user since it was first introduced. Here at home, we have given up all the conventional chemical cleansers now for quite some time and are happy we did so.

EM comes in bottles, from 200 ml to 1 litre. The only problem is one cannot use it like one does other “off-the-shelf” products like acid or phenyl. The liquid has to be “activated” first. This means mixing the liquid in fixed proportions with a nutrient which could either rice water or jaggery or sugar. These nutrients, when added, lead to an explosion in the population of beneficial microbes available to the user. The activated EM must then be further diluted before use, so one bottle of EM concentrate goes a really long way, provided you are careful and ensure it does not get contaminated.

Unlike phenyl and other dangerous agents, use of almost all brands of EM are safe. This is because they comprise consortia of nearly 80 different species of microbes including microbes that are used to make yeast and curd (lactobacillus). With persistent infusions of EM, these beneficial microbes gradually establish themselves in the local waste system, overpower the pathogenic ones, and smells go away. Gradually, cleaning tasks are reduced. In contrast with chemicals, nature benefits every time you use EM because you stop dumping chemicals and replace them with microorganisms instead.

EM has been used to improve the functioning of sewage treatment plants, clean up polluted river beds and to deal with effluent treatment problems. It has an almost miraculous impact when spread on rotting carcasses or on situations where foul smells are a chronic issue. Unlike chemicals, where more is better, with EM the homeopathic principle of less is more effective applies.

Chemicals provide instant relief, but no permanent cure, since the problems recur. With EM, the gains are not sudden, but slower and more lasting. You are dealing after all with life, not with chemicals, and living processes always work at their own sweet pace.

There are two major suppliers of such “nature-safe” cleansing agents. You can get EM from Maple in Kolkata and a similar product from Clover in Dehra Dun. They should be able to indicate where they are distributing the product in your city.

Maple Orgtech India

Unit House, P-40, Block-B,

New Alipore, Kolkata 700053

Phone: 033-2396335/24076679/24889201

Mobile: 9051498600/9051614886

Clover Organic Pvt Ltd

Contact Person: Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal

Telephone:+(+91)-(135)-2657119
Fax No:+(+91)-(135)-2654447

Address:41 Subhash Road, Dehradun,

Uttarakhand – 248001 (India)