Britons Bring Bowel Bacteria Onto Buses

by Mike Barish on

I’ve never been much of a germaphobe. I don’t carry Purell with me. I don’t wash my hands obsessively. And I don’t walk around with a mask on. But then I come across a story like this one on the BBC News website and I start to question whether I should live in a bubble. A recent recent study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (is there a better location for the study of tropical medicine?) has discovered that more than one in four commuters in the UK has bacteria associated with fecal matter on their hands.

Dr. Val Curtis, director of the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, “If any of these people had been suffering from a diarrhoeal disease, the potential for it to be passed around would be greatly increased by their failure to wash their hands after going to the toilet.” That, quite frankly, is more than I need from my daily commute. I’m just looking to get from Point A to Point B. Point D(iarrhea) is not part of my plan.

I ride the New York City subways to work everyday and I will admit that I avoid holding onto the bars/poles in the trains as much as possible. If I have to hold on, I typically wrap my arm around the pole so as to keep my hands clean. But sometimes you just have to grab on. However, I’m fairly certain that I don’t have fecal matter all over my hands. Because I wash them after I use the toilet. It’s everyone else who is apparently wiping their asses barehanded and then touching everything.

So, as we approach cold and flu season, perhaps it’s time to remind ourselves to wash our hands often. And use toilet paper instead of just our hands. It’s a great big world out there but it’s the tiny bacteria that will kill you. Or at least ravage your GI tract. Be sure to wave at me when I pass by in my bubble.

Germ-eliminating wand: an addition to your travel-kit

by Abha Malpani on

Remember the last time you woke up all scratchy from your hotel/bed? Or when the hotel’s carpet smelt like cat poo? Or when there was a layer of grime on the kitchen table-top of the apartment you rented out on your trip?

Well, now instead of taking a long shower with your eyes closed and trying to keep away nightmares of waking up with hives, you can be the wizard of cleanliness by owning a Hammacher Schlemmer germ-eliminating wand.

The device uses UV-C (a shortwave ultraviolet light that has disinfectant properties) to eliminate 99% of bacteria, viruses, mold, and dust mites in the bathroom, in the kitchen, or on your bedding.

All you have to do is move around the wand’s 6-inch long light bulb over all the surfaces you want ”purified” and it will rapidly disinfect everything. By holding the wand over the contaminated surface for 20 seconds, the UV light will kill all the E.coli, salmonella and staphylococcus that cause the common cold and the flu.

The wand can be programmed for up to an hour and has an automatic shut-off option. However, be careful as overexposure to UV-C can lead to skin-redness and eye irritation.

It costs about $100; perhaps not a bad investment eh?

Dental care on the road: Try a toothbrush sanitizer

by Jamie Rhein on

I have a habit of putting a toothbrush in a baggie when I travel. I do have those toothbrush holders, but never seem to find them when I pack. Baggies are in the bottom drawer in the kitchen.

If one travels for days on end, the baggie method is certainly not sanitary, and toothbrush holders are probably not much better. Here’s an option from a list of travel gadgets to give as gifts that was in the Columbus Dispatch. There’s a contraption called the Violight Toothbrush Santitizer. If you live in the U.S. you can buy them at CVS or Target.

Here’s how it works. Ultraviolet rays sanitize the toothbrush when you put your toothbrush in the carrying case and turn it on. I assume you turn it on. The rays burn off bacteria. According to the Web site, it gets rid of 99.9% germs in 7 minutes. Wow!! That’s a comfort since what you can’t see can hurt you. I have boiled my toothbrush before, but there’s a problem with the bristles falling out. I only tried that once.

Hmm, I wonder what else can fit in the case? Could you sanitize socks? Perhaps, if they are very small.

Men Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work

by Iva Skoch on

I know a lot of men, who never touch a public bathroom door handle with bare hands because they claim that other men never wash their hands. In fact, some men’s bathrooms have a pile of tissues next to the door because some men prefer to grab a tissue/hand towel and use it to open the door.

Looks like germ-o-phobes have another reason to keep doing so. A new study found that a rising number of American men do not wash their hands after using the bathroom–one third of all men comparing to 12 percent of women.

If the hygiene standard is so bad in America, I don’t even want to think about some other parts of the world. Here is to kicking the door open!

Dental Mitts and Travel Wipes

by Iva Skoch on

The recent NY Times article about packing toiletries in your bags was interesting. In addition to laying out the ever-changing rules and hazards about carrying liquids onto planes, it noted some new products in the area of traveling personal hygiene. I mean, come on, we’ve all been hoarding hotel shampoos because of their convenient–and “legal”–travelsize. There are alternatives now.

La Fresh out of California has a line of travel wipes called Travel Lite on the Go. They’ve got everything from nail polish removing wipes to dental finder mitts.

Travelon, a bag maker, has branched out into Alka-Seltzer-like dried, tablet toothpastes, mouthwashes, and shaving “creams.” Just add water.

And, if you want travel sizes for just about anything, try minimus.biz. (Soy sauce, anyone?)

No more having to worry about baggies and surly security agents.

But, a little more dangerous is their pitch for refillable bottles called Pitotubes that you’re supposed to pack in checked bags, without fear of leaking. But these things look so slick, they resemble something carried by the villain in a James Bond movie.