Many people use ammonia in far higher concentrations than this hand soap doing laundry and housecleaning and have their hands in the washing and cleaning solutions.
Most hair coloring and hair lightening products have a much higher concentration of ammonia, ditto for permanent wave solutions. And I know this from my time as a licensed Cosmetologist. Stan, the OP can back me up on this as he’s a Cosmetologist too.
In years past kerosene was used full strength to kill head lice, not something that I’d recommend, but the people that received this treatment all lived to tell about it, provided they stayed away from open flames.
The dilute concentration of both the ammonia and the kerosene in this recipe are minuscule, and would be barely detectable. People use Fels Naphtha for stain removal and doing laundry and Naphtha is a petroleum distillate just like kerosene.
Both ammonia and kerosene have been used for centuries and probably are less harmful than many modern day chemicals in cosmetics, soaps and detergents.
I would agree that the use of either straight ammonia or kerosene on the skin, or pouring either if these down the sewer would be harmful and not advisable. But in the amounts used in this recipe for hand soap innocuous.
Eddie
