Spring Break
Germ warfare: Are we going over the top in our quest for cleanliness?
Issue date: 1/26/07 Section: Health
- Page 1 of 3 next >
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MCT) — Courtney Bash is "obsessed" with antibacterial gel, which she carries in her purse, her computer bag, "every bag I have."
At pizza places, she'll touch the Parmesan and pepper shakers only with a napkin, because "all those kids touch that, and they probably lick the top of it." Shaking hands? "I think it should be outlawed."
Friends and family consider her a little extreme when it comes to germ-fighting, "but that's just because they're filthy," said Bash, 32, of Kansas City, Mo. "Just kidding."
For Kati Vanderhagen, it was a stay in a grimy hotel 20 years ago that made her realize "just how filthy places are." These days she refuses to drink from a water fountain, even if she's extremely thirsty. She tries to avoid public restrooms. At the gym, "If I don't like the way somebody sprayed (a piece of equipment) down, I can do it again."
And then there are restaurants.
"Have you seen what they clean tables with? The nastiest, dirtiest rags you've ever seen in your life." She conceded that's not true of every eatery. Still, "If my food touches the table, I don't eat it, and if my silverware touches the table, I ask for clean silverware," said Vanderhagen, 49, of Merriam.
Not everyone takes it as far as these women, but chances are, you're more germ-conscious than you used to be. Do you use your foot to flush public toilets? Do salad bars gross you out because of all those hands on the tongs? Do you keep a list in your head of friends or co-workers who don't wash up after going to the restroom? Do you Lysol your keyboard if someone with a cold as much as looks at it?
Well, good news. Maybe.
Granted, the people familiar with your germus operandi may be muttering "OCD" under their breath, but an expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention understands our collective germ phobia — or, as he put it, our "interest in infections."
We're often jammed together in airplanes and elevators. Some of us, such as babies and elderly people, are susceptible to infections. And there are the scary headlines about bird flu and E. coli tacos. Given all that, worries about germs are "a rational reaction to some of what we see," said Michael Bell. He's associate director for infection control at the CDC in Atlanta.
At pizza places, she'll touch the Parmesan and pepper shakers only with a napkin, because "all those kids touch that, and they probably lick the top of it." Shaking hands? "I think it should be outlawed."
Friends and family consider her a little extreme when it comes to germ-fighting, "but that's just because they're filthy," said Bash, 32, of Kansas City, Mo. "Just kidding."
For Kati Vanderhagen, it was a stay in a grimy hotel 20 years ago that made her realize "just how filthy places are." These days she refuses to drink from a water fountain, even if she's extremely thirsty. She tries to avoid public restrooms. At the gym, "If I don't like the way somebody sprayed (a piece of equipment) down, I can do it again."
And then there are restaurants.
"Have you seen what they clean tables with? The nastiest, dirtiest rags you've ever seen in your life." She conceded that's not true of every eatery. Still, "If my food touches the table, I don't eat it, and if my silverware touches the table, I ask for clean silverware," said Vanderhagen, 49, of Merriam.
Not everyone takes it as far as these women, but chances are, you're more germ-conscious than you used to be. Do you use your foot to flush public toilets? Do salad bars gross you out because of all those hands on the tongs? Do you keep a list in your head of friends or co-workers who don't wash up after going to the restroom? Do you Lysol your keyboard if someone with a cold as much as looks at it?
Well, good news. Maybe.
Granted, the people familiar with your germus operandi may be muttering "OCD" under their breath, but an expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention understands our collective germ phobia — or, as he put it, our "interest in infections."
We're often jammed together in airplanes and elevators. Some of us, such as babies and elderly people, are susceptible to infections. And there are the scary headlines about bird flu and E. coli tacos. Given all that, worries about germs are "a rational reaction to some of what we see," said Michael Bell. He's associate director for infection control at the CDC in Atlanta.
Be the first to comment on this story