South Korea's Consumer Protection Board did a survey to find out which commonly used public item is the biggest source of bacteria. Six items were tested, including shopping cart handles, bus straps, mice at Internet Cafes, doorknobs in public toilets, elevator buttons and straps in the subway.
Not surprisingly, shopping cart handles had the highest amount of bacteria. When I was growing up, my mother was always very strict about our hand washing. Always after going to the bathroom, handling money, and especially after going to the grocery store. I finally came to the conclusion that any time I go out in public I should wash my hands when I get home, because lord knows there will be something I touched that ten bajillion hands have touched. If I actually took the time to think about it, I'd never go out in public.
We are all filthy little creatures, after all. A bacterium's wet dream. I find it rather hard to accept that bacteria and virii are organisms that are just trying to survive in the world, just like you and me. The idea that they mutate and evolve freaks me out a little bit. But I try to be tolerant of these microscopic organisms. You never know if one day they might save us.
5 comments:
I keep the Ygro Hartomandila companies in business with my constant use of their products. Plus, I've been told I'm the only person who actually washes their hands prior to using the men's room and after.....
And my kids give me a hard time for insisting on hand washing as soon as they come in the house..
Mama taught me the same: Always wash hands after handling anything outside our home, before eating and after visiting the bathroom.
I have taken this one step further with my kids: Always carry handywipes with you!
At work (I'm an Informations Tech admin) I have a bottle of rubbing alcohol. I use it lavishly, particularly after I've been called to someone else's keyboard to solve a tech problem. Keyboards and phone receivers are major germ pools.
My co-workers are following my cue and now sporting their own personal rubbing alcohol bottles or handywipes on their desks.
on the list of most infected items you forgot to say elementary school children. i was a teacher for four years and i gave up worrying about germs--occupational hazard. but you know, i rarely ever got sick. a healthy dose of yucky stuff is good for the immune system, i say! and stressing about it every time you go in public is definitely counter-productive.
now let me just touch this internet cafe mouse one more time...
Lol Tracie B., I was going to make a comment about kids but I stopped myself.
Handwipes, well, I couldn't live without them. People thought I was crazy in America, always with the handwipes. I tell people who are planning on visiting Europe specifically to carry handwipes and a package of tissues around at all times, because if you have to use a public toilet, these can be necessities.
I'm not entirely obsessive compulsive, but gee, when you touch something at the store, or on a hand rail somewhere, and it has some kind of...goop...on it, I get a little sick.
G
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