The "Today Show" Germ Check

[ekerr19]

I agree with tomc regarding working in a 'roach motel'.

 

My ex-job, was a fairly clean place.

Until we hired a bunch of new guys. I encountered one guy who didn't wash his hands after using the bathroom. Saddest thing ... he WORKED IN THE SAME ROOM WITH ME!

 

This is a huge problem - I am the only female in our office, but we share a really nice ladies room on our floor with a mid-sized law firm. I have to say that I was absolutely FLOORED by the number of women working in that firm who do not wash their hands!

 

I always keep the paper towel with me to open the doors and then throw it away when I get back to my office.

 

I have never known so many women to not wash after using the restroom - can you imagine all the paperwork and files they are handling? It is truly disgusting. :eek:

[HeatherInFlorida]

Dianne, with some differences our early lives ran quite parallel and I think there may be something to it. I laughed when I read about the cracked eggs! Brought back memories. Of course, those were cracked eggs directly from our chickens ... not sure I'd want to eat one from the local market!!

 

And my upbringing may also be why I'm not really a germaphobe. I take the basic precautions, but I don't go overboard. The only place I'm most careful is my kitchen where I've read there are far more germs than in any bathroom.

 

What we really have to bear in mind is that there are germs everywhere! 95% of the time you're not going to get anything from them. Otherwise we'd all be sick all the time and we're simply not. Germs are not new; they've been around forever. Much of the medical community insists that we have become way overzealous in our pursuit of antiseptic surroundings and therefore our immune systems are weaker.

 

But obviously there are places that are going to be more prone than others, places we're just more apt to pick up bacteria than others (like hot tubs) and personally I just avoid those places. But no way it will keep me off a cruiseship:D .

[jhannah]

I always wipe down the airplane trays with antibacterial wipes. Don't use their pillows or blankets and try never use the bathroom.

I gather that you've never flown non-stop Memphis to Amsterdam! ;)

 

I'm gonna' blow your farm argument. I'm a city boy and outside of seasonal allergies once a year (like clockwork) I am very rarely sick.

[ekerr19]

Wow! I'm one of those that takes anti-bacterial wipes and Lysol spray to all hotels and ship cabins and goes to town cleaning before the family can unpack and relax. Never thought about pulling them out of my bag on a plane. Better believe I will now.

 

Oh please don't! :)

 

I really hate the smell of Lysol - in small quarters (such a plane cabin) I would go berserk if the person next to me started spraying Lysol all over the place. Please reconsider doing this - it may make you feel better, but it would be offensive to me.

 

The bacterial hand wipes should be sufficient for your own space on the plane.

 

Also, aerosol sparay is prohibited in most carry on luggage, except in very small quantities.

[98Charlie]

HeatherinFlorida:

 

Someone out there knows where I'm coming from. Bless you.

 

We now live in a society where you can bring home a dozen ``fresh'' eggs from the grocery store, boil them that day and peel them with no problem. First indicator for farm kids that the chickens gave up those eggs last week, not last night.

 

We can buy ``fresh pork'' in our supermarkets, not really knowing how long ago little piggy went to market or who, and how many, had their hands on the meat before it arrived on the market counter.

 

We can go into a restuarant, go the bathroom before we eat, wash our hands and touch a contaminated door handle on our way out - eat our meal, get sick a day or two later, and then blame the restaurant for our illness.

 

We can fly on an airplane to a cruise ship, get contaminated on the airplane, then blame the cruise line for our illness.

 

We can visit our child or grandchild's school, get germinated there and then go off on vacation and blame the last vacation entity for the illness that eventually incubates.

 

We can drive our selves silly worrying about getting sick until we get sick just thinking about it.

 

Or, we can do what we can to protect ourselves against others' weird hygiene habits - washing our hands as often as posible, using sanitizing gels as often as possible -- and having a Kleenex or hanky close to cover our mouth and nose if we cough or sneeze.

 

Whoops, starting to sound like my mother here. Think it's a good thing. Mom was the one who first told me to go out to play in our chicken yard when I was a toddler and had no one to keep me company. My very first best friends were chickens. I walked where they walked, learned to talk their talk, and never once got brucelosis (a common chicken disease).

 

Come to think of it, our family never had to send a chicken to the vet for toncilitis, (sp?) even though I had to have my toncils out when I was 8. :D

 

Dianne

[ekerr19]

I gather that you've never flown non-stop Memphis to Amsterdam! ;)

 

Jim -

 

LOL! No kidding! There is extreme and then there is EXTREME! :eek:

[HeatherInFlorida]

I ditto EKerr's remarks to Oliviaonthebeach not only because the smell is overpowering to others, but also because it does nothing to disinfect anything. This has been on the news quite a bit recently ... Lysol does not kill germs.

So stick with the sanitizing wipes, if you must, but hold the Lysol!!!

Dianne, with you 100% ... "you've got a friend in me":D (I'm singing)..... we played out in the barn for endless hours ... even in the cow stantions when the cows were out in the pasture...leaped and frolicked in the hay bales. Actually, it was a glorious life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. We lived on 180 acres of open land and glorious woods. What I would give to be back there now.

Sorry! I digress ... we were talking "germs";) !!!

[Quo Vadis?]

You're doing it wrong.. as the following article indicates... a little drink will go a long way.

 

OSU scientist develops natural disinfectant from wine (5/28/02)

 

CORVALLIS - White wine, often sipped as the perfect accompaniment to an elegant entree, may soon be available as a natural anti-bacterial spray for the kitchen.

 

Mark Daeschel, an Oregon State University food scientist, is a microbial safety specialist. He and OSU research assistants Jessica Just and Joy Waite have completed research indicating that wine kills bacteria when it is consumed with a meal. That means those who take wine with their entrée are less likely to come down with food poisoning.

 

"Simply put, the wine kills the bugs," Daeschel said.

 

Something in the grape has anti-bacterial properties that kill germs that cause common types of food poisoning, such as E. coli and salmonella. It also kills Staphylococcus aureaus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, all of which can contaminate food and cause illness.

 

The wine appears to have some benefits that might be attractive to consumers as well, Daeshel said. It's environmentally safe.

 

"That appeals to people concerned about the environment, and also to people who are concerned about their exposure to chemical residues," he said.

 

 

 

Forget about wiping down on airplanes...

The guy 5 rows back sneezed, the vent sucked it up and put it right through the nozzle above you... right into your face...

 

Don't let the bugs get you down. Travel with cold remedies that will cut your illness from 8 days to 7..

 

Drink, enjoy.

 

After the Veendam incident where pax did not touch anything we went to the Zenith... where shocked we did not get sick with the lack of controls... It had to be the wine...:D

[98Charlie]

Heather:

 

We enjoyed removing the ``unsantized'' milk filters from the milking machines and throwing them out to the barn cats for a good lickin' and then picked up the licked filters and put them in the burn barrel.

 

Never washed our hands before we went off to the barn loft to grab our fishin' poles, dig a few worms, and take off to the ``crick'' a few yards from the milking barn.

 

After baiting a few hooks with live, dirty worms, catching a few dirty carp loaded with creek mud and slime and then loading back into the truck for the trip back to the farm house --Mom always made us wash our hands before we ate dinner.

 

Now I wonder how many times I scratched my nose, bit my nails or rubbed my eyes between the times I played with the chickens, milked the cows and fished for carp. ;)

 

Will never know, but at least I'm alive to tell it and remember it because my mother taught me to wash my hands before I ate. :D

 

So glad my mother never read this thread when I was growing up. What a pain it would have been to wash my hands after petting a chicken, handling a milk filter before and after the cats licked it and then before fishing for carp.

 

Heaven forbid! I could have endangered the creek carp during my childhood escapades. I could have made them sick with my fingers loaded with germs from the milk filters. :)

 

Dianne

[Quo Vadis?]

..leaped and frolicked in the hay bales.

 

Sorry! I digress ... we were talking "germs";) !!!

 

Sounds more interesting...than germ warfare

[HeatherInFlorida]

Dianne!!! Yes yes yes!!! LOL ... "tears keep falling from my eyes" (I'm singing again:D ) ...

 

Great memories. And when our well ran dry one summer, after a few days and a crust was forming our Mom took us down to the watering hole to "bathe"!!! Other than the copperhead snake lurking there, I have no idea what germs we were bathing in!!! And we lived to tell the tale ... miracle of miracles:) .

LOL ... thanks for the fun. Back to sanitizing everything in sight!!! I think we're grossing these nice people out:eek: .

[98Charlie]

Dianne!!! Yes yes yes!!! LOL ... "tears keep falling from my eyes" (I'm singing again:D ) ...

 

Great memories. And when our well ran dry one summer, after a few days and a crust was forming our Mom took us down to the watering hole to "bathe"!!! Other than the copperhead snake lurking there, I have no idea what germs we were bathing in!!! And we lived to tell the tale ... miracle of miracles:) .

LOL ... thanks for the fun. Back to sanitizing everything in sight!!! I think we're grossing these nice people out:eek: .

 

No more grossing readers out about our own farm tales of bacteria war fare. Have to admit I have my supply of hand santizers, etc., etc. packed for our next cruise that starts March 4.

 

On a side note: DH's father died three weeks ago. DMIL is 80. DH & I worried about the entire funeral home viewing process and germs and bacteria spread by hand shaking. I immediately brought out our supply of hand sanitizers and DH & I kept spritzing her hands as well as our own with Purell as the viewing line kept shaking our hands. No time to wash hands between hand shakes and it's winter cold and flu season in Ohio.

 

Happy to report that no one in our family came down with sniffles, flu, etc. during the funeral process. People going through the viewing line remarked to us about the hand sanitizing spritzing process and said they had never thought about that before but commended DH & I for thinking about it.

 

We wouldn't have thought about doing that if it hadn't been for these CC boards.

 

My mother-in-law didn't catch a cold or the flu, even though it's the season here - and no one in our immediate family has reported any illnesses either, even though we have heard that some who visited the funeral home did get ill and called the family to apologize for their illness in case one of us succumed to their germs.

 

Two weeks after the funeral - we're o.k. Any flu or cold we get now didn't come from the funeral, we caught it on our own after the fact. :D

 

Dianne

[trubey]

Let's try to be practical here. What can we do to help ourselves. Anyone for a petition to convince Hal to put the hand sanitizers and disposal bins outside the bathrooms. Who wants to carry around damp, dirty paper towels.

 

And some speculation: After you recover from one of these ship viruses, could you become a carrier? I'm thinking of the old typhoid-Mary tales. Could the captain or cruise director or whatever be keeping this alive? Anyone know the answer to this?

 

susan.

[Sea Island Lady]

I gather that you've never flown non-stop Memphis to Amsterdam! ;)

No, how far is it? I can wait a long time! :D

 

Forget about wiping down on airplanes...

The guy 5 rows back sneezed, the vent sucked it up and put it right through the nozzle above you... right into your face...

That's why I don't turn my air on the entire trip. I do have to reach up and turn it off once I arrive and will now do it with a wipe in hand. I don't use Lysol...hate the odor also.

[98Charlie]

No, how far is it? I can wait a long time! :D

 

 

That's why I don't turn my air on the entire trip. I do have to reach up and turn it off once I arrive and will now do it with a wipe in hand. I don't use Lysol...hate the odor also.

 

Microbioligist we heard on radio the other night said a misconception about diseases transported via air planes is not through the recirculated air aboard planes but via the snack trays, upholstered seats, etc. we use.

 

Makes since to me. How often are the seats, trays, arm rests, etc. sanitized between flights? On short hops there's not much time between flights.

 

Won't top flying because of my theory. Will just be a bit more traveler savvy about flights.

 

Old addage ``buyer beware'' seems to kick in here.

 

Guess that old addage went out the window wne a customer bought a cup of hot coffee, placed it between the legs, drove off with it and got burned in the process.

 

Hot - chance to get hurt. Travel - remember where you're sitting and who may have sat there before or used the same water you're sitting in.

 

Just simple thoughts from a simple person, perhaps. I'd rather renain simple than get into any more detailed discussion. :p

 

Dianne

[dakrewser]

You're doing it wrong.. as the following article indicates... a little drink will go a long way.

 

OSU scientist develops natural disinfectant from wine (5/28/02)

 

Finally! The voice of reason :)

[flattire]

Hi

Do many people have supplemental oxygen brought on board for their cruise?

 

Thanks

 

no air

[xpcdoojk]

I just love it when school is out and all of the little darlings are left home alone and they entertain themselves by sharing their under developed wit with us. :rolleyes:

 

 

Joy Joy:(

 

jc:rolleyes: