It is often assumed that bleach is the worst of the bathroom cupboard culprits, but its environmental impact is hotly debated. The industry, led by the American bleach compansy Clorox, argues that bleach breaks down in waterways, presenting no danger to aquatic life, while Greenpeace calls for greater controls on the industry, not because of the specific impact of bleach but the harmful by-products that it creates.

If you choose to keep a bottle on stand-by for drastic emergencies, I won't think any less of you. I know plenty of otherwise deep green people who are partial to a secret supply of bleach, kept well-hidden behind their Ecover products.

But employing a cleaner who uses bleach by the bucket-load is not a good idea; it's your tender parts that will be exposed to the chemical, not the cleaner's.

While you may call the shots, it is he or she who will have to apply the elbow-grease if you furnish them with half a lemon and a bottle of vinegar. It's all very well trumpeting the virtue of home-made solutions - for example, boiling water and a splash of tea tree oil to make a natural disinfectant - but if you're not doing the cleaning, it's a bit unfair.

And, while you might be happy with lower standards and less harmful chemicals around the home, the cleaner will feel they're not doing the job properly. Better to mention your concerns about bleach, so at least your resistance makes sense, and then offer

alternative green products. Fresh & Green's bathroom cleaner and limescale remover (Waitrose; £1.99) came top in a test of nine green bathroom products, conducted by Which? magazine last year, followed by Ecover's limescale remover (www.naturalcollection.com; £2.50).

Failing that, you could resort to diluting the bleach bottle with water, a cowardly solution to her overzealous approach to chemicals, but effective all the same.

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