Bleach in lemonade bottles?!

[Muddybuddy]

I really remember from my childhood that there was a thing about not putting bleach in lemonade bottles in case a child drunk it. DH doesn’t remember this but I’m convinced I do.
But it doesn’t make sense, bleach comes in a bottle, why would anyone transfer it to another bottle??!!
So did I imagine the whole thing and if not, what am I missing, why would anyone do it?

I remember this too.

Was it because it used to come as powder which needed making up into a liquid for use, and people would use any old empty bottle?

Yeh, it was in Topsy and Tim when they went to stay with their childless aunt and uncle. Tim almost drank it. Notice they didn't put that on cbeebies.

Yes, as pp above said, it used to come in a concentrated form which needed making up.

I immediately started nodding yes we had bleach and turps in lemonade bottles ours came from a neighbour who bought it in drums and shared it out we lived in flats so we all had a share. I also remember the scary public information films about toddlers drinking from bottles under the sink

I’m pretty sure Brookside had a plot line about this. Ron Dixon put bleach in a “lemo” bottle and a child (possibly Beth’s younger sister?) took a sip.

Aah so it’s amount buying it in bigger containers or mixing it up! That makes sense, thanks!

Oh was it concentrate? I remember a large container it is vague memory though.

My uncle worked for the council training painters he was the turps dealer

Not specifically lemonade bottles - any bottle that is not for that chemical, especially drinks bottles.

Don't bleach bottles have Braille on them?

It's not just about children, it's anyone with a visual impairment or a learning disability or dementia etc etc.

Plus if you transfer cleaning chemicals into other bottles then you no longer have the poisons information or the warnings about what it would be dangerous to mix that chemical with.

I vaguely recall a storyline on this on Neighbours. Don't remember why they'd been transferred other than that it was all done innocently with no expectation of any risk. And then someone with a visual impairment drank it.

I can imagine someone doing it if they had a bulk purchase and wanted it in a smaller container to pour from, or were giving part of their bottle to someone else.

My dad is a retired paramedic. He’s always said the worst call he ever went to was a toddler who’d drank bleach from a pop bottle.

I remember that too, they had those books in the dentists waiting room.

Yes I remember watching on That's Life when they were campaigning for proper bleach bottles, there was a young girl who'd been terribly injured by accidentally drinking bleach and it scared the life out of me.

I worked in a children's home in the 60s and every Saturday morning we had to take our lemonade bottles to a shed in the garden, and the Superintendent would refill them with bleach, disinfectant, etc.. Very dodgy.

My dsis drank the bleach as a toddler, i am told

I remember shouting up the stairs could we drink the green juice ( my brother had already poured it but I was a goody 2 shoes) and my mother screaming and running down the stairs - It was decanted cleaner

I remember it as a storyline in Emmerdale.

I vividly remember being told off by my mum after helping myself to a drink from a bottle. It was just a drink that I'd poured but I presume from her reaction that she may have also kept cleaning products in pop bottles. Must have been a thing in the 70s/80s.

You can buy cleaning products in a condensed form now... More ecological than disposable spray bottles. It could be a public health campaign that needs a comeback.
(Personally I'm reusing an old spray bottle for them, but you can buy reusable bed, but there are no labels)

It was / is considered normal to mix weed-killing products in handy, screw top plastic containers.
Paraquat (banned one most places now) was a terrible one In parts of S America - kids would die just from a swig from a fizzy drinks bottle, and all hospital could do was make them more comfortable. Awful.