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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, March 28, 2008 - 2:24 pm
I've always loved that joke, Bob. I still laughed reading it this time. 
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Tanzanite
Member
06-28-2005
| Friday, March 28, 2008 - 3:19 pm
On the matter of skin infections, I don't know the statistical rate of transference in various locales. What I do have personal knowledge of is that last year, in my neck of the woods, there was an epidemic of MRSA. That is a very nasty skin ingection that causes the painful lesions on the body and if it becomes somhow infectious to the bloodstream, it can kill. Local authorities, doctors, school administrators and such put out bullentins and alarms for everyone to wash their hands often. Thid was yet another illness that proper hygeine could help to avoid. This outbreak was horrendous. One teenager died from it. The whole city was on alert. Many schools closed down for a day of cleaning in which they steralized the desks, lockers, and all equipment/peronal properties. I had a family member who caught this MRSA infection prior to the general outbreak. Thankfully, we were able to make doctor visits in time to headoff the worst of possibilities. That was not fun in itself. The cure can be as painful as the disease sometime, ya know. I am told that MRSA harbors in the nose of the infectted individual. So seeing people pick around with their nose, well...just another reason for me to wash my hands. Nose picking is often an observation of Big Brother hgs. There seem to be more reasons For hand washing than against. Every argument in favor of filthness finds another reason for me to be in favor of hand washing. Also, my family member is one of those who heehaws my hand-washing obsession.
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Just_gail
Member
08-25-2007
| Friday, March 28, 2008 - 11:34 pm
I had a collegue who was a germophobe. He kept spraying my phone even though he didn't use it himself. He was scrupulous in his hand-washing. Then one day he dropped a cookie on the floor, picked it up and ate it! He laughed at the expression on my face when I saw him do that. I didn't remind him that I lived in a dog friendly neighborhood and the bottoms of my shoes were probably covered with dog poo which I track into the office every morning. That's what his cookie landed in!
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Mummy35332
Member
09-09-2005
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 12:37 am
To restate my previous post, it is a matter of when we need to wash our hands and knowing when that time is. Yes, handwashing is necessary, but when the the act of washing your hands introdues more 'germs', then why do it? If you have to use a nasty bathroom, you are better off not touching anything and leaving with the germs you came in with. You can use a public bathroom and touch nothing. If the business is not considerate (educated) enought to put a trash can close to the door, then just drop your paper towel, wet nap, tissuse, whatever you have used to open that door, right out side. The cleaners with gloves will come along and clean it up and eventually the management will get the message. This sounds cold, but I would rather be messy that ill. Oh and no place to hang my purse is a deal breaker. I will leave without my purchaes if I do not have a secure place to hang my purse and coat. And a secure place it not at the top of the door where anyone can reach over and grab my purse while I squat.
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Mummy35332
Member
09-09-2005
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 12:48 am
Tanz, we might be neighbors. I saw numerous outbreaks, cleanings and school closing where I live too. My advice to my kids was to not use the school bathrooms unless they absolutely had too, and to not touch anything bare handed in those bathrooms. Of course that doesn't help if the kid in the class before them has MSRA and is a nose picker that left things behind on the desk the hour before they arrived. Being exposed to germs does strenghten our immune system. My Mom always said we had to eat a peck of dirt before we died, lol (showing my age). I still think there are some bathroom germs we are best to avoid. And avoiding those germs to me is not about me using the bathroom, it is about me touching what others have touched in that bathroom.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 1:45 am
You can also put hand sanitizer into your backpack or your child's pack or the glove box in the car. no water needed. So if you need to grab onto a railing or bannister or shake a few hands.. there it is.. I would certainly try to bring that sort of thing into the house.
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Mummy35332
Member
09-09-2005
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 3:17 am
We have Sea. Thank you for the recommendation. For my son, we not only worry about germs, but food allergens (please check the Celebrity Apprentice thread and give a donation). Hand santizers don't help people with anaphylatic food allergies. Allergens are not germs.
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Sia
Member
03-11-2002
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 6:38 am
A grocery store (part of a 5-location local chain) in a neighboring town now has a disposable plastic shopping-cart-handle protector. My 9-yr-old daughter and I noticed the dispenser and chuckled, but we didn't check it out and we didn't try the product. It's interesting. I was, however, much more worried about shopping cart germs when my kids were babies. I kept the kids, especially the older one--who has ALLERGIES--germ-free as much as possible. The younger one has NO allergies, probably because she was allowed to eat things that had fallen off the floor and to feed the cats from her plate. Hmm, should we not let the cats lick our fingers and then continue eating? Seriously, my daughter and I will feed the cats from the table, but kitty gets a CLEAN FINGER with each taste of potatoes. Is that for kitty's protection or mine?
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Nyheat
Member
08-09-2006
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 7:22 am
I am so grossed out by shopping carts and especially the hand-held ones. They are always so filthy. Being a weakling myself, I find that most germs are opportunistic, and they can only get through your body's defenses if those defenses are weak. A lot of germs are on your person at any given time. I've seen this in action while attending classes--I've caught colds that lasted for weeks, while someone else would kick it in a day, and a third person wouldn't get sick at all. A strong or weak immune system is the kicker.
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Antkaki
Member
07-20-2005
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 9:20 am
i've read alot about how obsessive handwashing and using the antibacterial soaps and other antibacterial stuff does more harm than good. i had a friend who was obsessive about her daughter, everytime the child got a bit dirty, she would give her a quick bath and clean clothes...the child changed clothes must be about 8 times a day, and she is constantly sick. all of us kids played in the pig pens and in the pastures at aunts/grandparents houses and were constantly dirty almost from the tinme we got up til we took a bath at night, and none of us are hardly ever sick...there are good germs and bad germs and mostly we wash away more good germs than the bad. only time i really make a point of hand washing is after i've handled raw meats. it would be amusing to think of our great great grandparents giggling at us so obsessive about germs when they hardly had water to waste washing hands all day. JM
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Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 10:33 am
When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought it was in regards to the obsession of watching BB and whether we wash or do the wash(laundry) while it's on. LOL
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Kmjm
Member
05-19-2002
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 10:50 am
Back in the "good old days", especially in cities before public sanitation, people, particularly children and the elderly, died of bacterial contamination such as cholera, dysentery and E Coli infection. There were also massive pandemics like the Plague and the Spanish Flu in 1918-20 that killed more people than died in the first world war. Public heath and sanitation measures have saved more people's lives than all the cancer treatments put together. E Coli can be a killer, and it is present in the digestive tracts of humans and many farm animals. Personally, I always wash my hands and I avoid touching doorhandles, railings etc where germs lurk. If I can't avoid it, I wash my hands as soon as possible afterward. I started being more careful because I was getting a lot of colds, and now I very rarely have one. It totally grosses me out when the hgs don't wash their hands. If they are contaminated with E Coli and cook afterward, they could make the whole house sick. It is a very selfish act not to wash your hands because everything you touch afterward could infect someone else.
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Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 10:54 am
Km...then you must have REALLY been grossed out when Josh did what he did with that key. And what James did with his sperm. Talk about contamination!
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Kmjm
Member
05-19-2002
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 10:59 am
Bee, I am grossed out by more than that. Adam's constant picking and scratching is disgusting. I can't stand to look at the guy. I knew about the key- but what did James do with his sperm? Sperm is not bacteria, however, so in itself it is not disease-causing, any more than menstrual blood. And urine is OK too-it's actually sterile. So it's not bodily functions that bother me-it's bacterial contamination.
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Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 11:05 am
James did his thing in the bed, then carried it out and spread it in the bathroom sink.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 3:32 pm
The bathroom sink is washable.. Last night Adam had his hands down his pants, front and back (the cameras zoomed right in each time) while Natalie was cooking and then when she asked him to put some butter in one of the pots on the stove, he took out the butter and it seemed like he wasn't too careful to only touch the paper wrapper,as he chucked the half stick of butter into the pot. I would worry more about dishes being dried and put away by dirty hands. Of course if they don't wash the sink and plop food into it.. that's another story. Our grocery now has wipes that you can use to wipe down the parts of the grocery cart you have to touch. Several medical buildings I've been in recently have devices whete you stick your hands in and a spray activates with antibacterial mist. At entrances and by elevators.
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Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 7:58 pm
Our grocery now has wipes that you can use to wipe down the parts of the grocery cart you have to touch. I love these.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Sunday, March 30, 2008 - 12:56 am
I still see anti-germ overreactions voiced here. A huge majority of us here at TVCH are carrying Meningitis, Staph, strep and infectious viruses RIGHT NOW. I think many of you would be shocked, especially those who think that they are super clean. MRSA is being found NOT to CAUSE DISEASE, but in a carrier state in many people. As I said before, it is like a lottery whether a person actually gets sick from most of these commonly occurring bacteria/viruses. I like Nyheat's post since immunity is really the key to everything. most cats and dogs carry salmonella as a normal flora in their bodies. How many people you know Kiss their pet? How many people who kiss their pets get salmonella? I'm sure my point is clear. oh my the way, the Spanish Flu was actually a BIRD FLU kinda similar to that which is causing problems now. It could become just as bad of an epidemic quickly....since we are too clean and have little immunity.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Sunday, March 30, 2008 - 12:59 am
oh and I should add...I detest those Sanitation Hand wipes and Lotions that are put all over the place. I have severe chemical sensitivity and those CHEMICALS are toxic to me to breathe. I cannot go down an aisle in a store if someone has used it. It is also really unhealthy to use on your skin. I've started reading warnings about them but it is so politically correct to use right now, they are being ignored.
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Mummy35332
Member
09-09-2005
| Monday, March 31, 2008 - 5:59 am
I understand the chemical sensitivites. I have them too. To the point that I have to stay far away from some of my kids friends and school functions because of the smell of laundry soap, softener, drier sheets, perfumes and colonges. I don't know which because I can't stand any of them. Put me in a school auditorium and I cough so bad no one enjoys what is being presented. I clean what I can, avoid what I can, and deal with the rest (natural rubber latex excluded, that I must avoid at all costs). But for the majority, they don't have to avoid what I have to avoid. They don't have to avoid natural rubber latex (classroom parites, birthday parties, gloves used in stores to stock shelves and produce, or the balloons for special occasions, or food prep in restarants, etc, etc,). For the majority they don't have to clean the check out line at the grocery store top to bottom before checkout like I have to do to keep my son safe from his food allergy (again go to the Celebrity Apppretice thread). So again I say we need to understand when 'we' need to wash and when 'we' don't. What I need to wash may not be what others have to wash. What others need to wash may not be what I need to wash.
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Carochar
Member
07-25-2005
| Monday, March 31, 2008 - 10:37 am
Just a quick "thank you" for all the informative posts in this thread. Wow! It's opened my eyes! And a word about BB3's Gerry: he'd fix a salad for the house after not washing. Food to be heated is one thing but knowing that about an uncooked item makes me cringe. A well-intentioned fellow but I can see why others became upset.
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