Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Life continues apace. And while all is not sunshine and stun grenades around here, it could be worse.
Avian/bird flu is rearing its head over on the Asian continent – again. This time it’s the Indians (That’s Indians with the dot, not feather) turn and, according to various news reports, attempts to contain it are meeting with varying degreese of non-success. Not surprising. Who wants to turn in your chickens for slaughter when you cant eat beef because the cows are sacred? (Ghandi voice: No,no,no..don’t sanctify the chickens…they taste too good.)
Its already cold and flu season here in the US (that’s the regular cold/flu…not the bird variety). It sounds very elementary and basic but it really does seem to be true – deliberate and frequent handwashing goes a long way towards preventing a person from catching the bug. This makes sense if you think about it…probably 99% of your actual ‘contact’, as in bare skin physically touching something, is done with your hands on a day-to-day basis. You handle money (filthy stuff…terrific vector), doorknobs, store countertops, telephones, keyboards, etc, etc. with your hands and then those hands shove a hamburger down your gullet. Next thing you know, you’re in the bathroom driving the porcelain bus and trying to recall what it was you ate that might be doing this to you. So, reasonably, washing your hands frequently eliminates a large percentage of your vulnerability.
When the girlfriend and I go to WalMart for groceries I cant help but look at the masses of humanity wandering the aisles and think that these same creatures had their filthy hands on the handles of the cart Im pushing or basket Im carrying. So…in my everyday bag I have a small ‘pocket pack’ of bleach wipes. I take one with me in to the store and wipe down the handles of the cart/basket before I do anything else. Clorox makes the small pocket pack I normally use and I recommend them. They are also a godsend if you have to use a public restroom. To make sure they don’t dry out I keep the pocket pack in a small Ziploc bag. A tiny bottle of hand sanitizer also goes in my bag as well. (Hey, speaking of public restrooms…if you use your bare hand to hit the flush lever or pull the door open on the way out you’re probably asking for trouble. Use a paper towel, that’s what they’re there for.)
Bleach is some seriously cheap stuff. I just picked up two one-gallon jugs of unscented Clorox up at CostCo for something like $4.90. Given a choice, get the unscented variety…no additives…this way you can use it for water purification duties if necessary. While you’re in the local megamart go pick up a package of empty spray bottles. Fill one with a bleach/water mixture and use it for wiping down everything in your bathroom and kitchen. Very cheap insurance. Think about how much money you earn in a day and how much you’ll lose per day if you’re sick and unable to work. Now compare that with ten bucks for a gallon of bleach, a spray bottle and some bleach wipes. Cheap insurance, man.
Although I enjoy the face-to-face personal interaction with customers I don’t enjoy shaking hands with them. Sure, it has to be done sometimes but once the customer is out the door and out of sight the hand sanitizer comes out from under the counter. Its not OCD, its being careful. Buy yourself a big jug of the stuff and use it to refill your smaller ‘tavel size’ bottles that you keep in your car or bag. Saves you a few bucks as it keeps the viral nasties at bay.
Handled money? Wash your hands. Shook hands with someone? Wash your hands. Handled an object (keyboard, phone handset, shopping cart, etc) used by countless other people? Wash your hands. Just used a public restroom? Soak your hands in gasoline and set them…I mean, wash your hands.
I don’t know about you but I cant really afford to get sick even in the best of times… and I definitely can very much not afford to be sick when things get weird. Every little step counts in these regards.
Is this a guarantee of avoiding the various viral issues that circulate among us at this time of season? Nope. There are no guarantees…but it definitely reduces the likelihood of catching something by a very large amount. While we cannot exclude all risk from our lives we can certainly tip the odds in our favor from time to time. (And, really, being prepared is all about tipping the odds in you’re favor, isn’t it?)
Keep in mind that bleach does lose a bit of its efficacy over time. However, for less than three bucks a gallon its hardly a hardship to replace your fading supply after a year or so. More likely you’ll wind up using most of it before it ‘expires’ just doing normal things like laundry and other cleaning.
Vinegar has a reputation as being somewhat antimicrobial and the girlfriend uses it to wipe down the countertops here at the house. Makes the house smell like a salad. While Im sure vinegar has some merit in the ‘keep me from getting sick’ department I think bleach is packing a little bit more power.
Bleach, of course, has other uses. Mixed with ammonia you’ve got the pretty much the same stuff that killed thousands on World War One battlefields. Mix them together at your own risk. Seriously, its nasty stuff…people get hospitalized every year when a house cleaning binge goes bad and someone scrubs the tub out with ammonia and bleach. Its bad news. Be careful.
So head down to your laundry room, see if you have any unscented bleach and go out and pick up a gallon or two. While you’re at it definitely get the pocket pack of bleach wipes. They are a seriously useful piece of gear that’s worth keeping with you.
Though I am in complete agreement with the hand washing, I would ask you take a look at the literature on using sanitizing products in a broadcast fashion.
It seems that without an intense level of effort, not all the little critters get killed and, as the line goes, “what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” The ones you don’t kill with bleach the first time (simplifying now) will never be killed by it if you need to later. This is the source of those unkillable staff germs that inhabit hospitals.
A better attack might be to wash with soap and water a lot, use good sense when in things like bathrooms where “kill” may be in order, and let your body learn to deal with the other critters that inhabit your normal environment, saving the big guns like bleach for a once over or on the meat cutting board.
This approach will also make your immune system stronger for the times you need it to deal with really bad things that come on the wind. Without exercise, nothing gets as good as it can be.
Yeah, I’ve been reading that as well. The abundance of antibacterial soaps and whatnot encouraging more resistant strains and whatnot.
I guess that if ‘what doesnt kill me makes me stronger’ applies here then the secret is to make sure it DOES kill ’em on the first shot.
If you could kill ’em all, but, as hospitals have found out, that is not a doable do.
I’m gong with hand washing with a good soap and anti stuff in spot uses like kitchen counters and open cuts.
I want my good bugs healthy and strong, and will put up with some bag guys to get them.
I practice the “eat dirt and thrive” approach. I do practice basic hand washing, but I’ve never used sanitizers or wipes, and I also never get sick – maybe one cold a year. If I was in a different environment – maybe one where we actually had to worry about bird flu being spread in the area – then I might modify my approach, but for now I prefer to avoid trying to kill everything in sight. I think it’s overreaction and unproductive.
I remember an old doctor friend of mine telling me that most of us who work with our hands, get slivers, dig in the ground and get dirty a lot develop a natural resistance to tetanus and infections. The booster shot is still a good idea when we get a serious injury, but we can ride through minor stuff without being overly worried compared to the people who wipe down everything with bleach including their children.
There is probably a happy medium in here some where, certainly the anti-microbal soaps are quietly preparing some bug/bacteria/virus with super powers that will eventually eat out our eyeballs while we are asleep. But anyone that is properly hydrating themselves will be urinating 5-6 times a day or so and I use that opportunity to perform a thorogh warm water hand wash, using soap with no water first, then rinsing. Once a week I wash down the kitchen counter and bathrooms with a bleach solution, if using a public restroom or porta-john, extra measures ensue.
Luckily I work outside, by myself, so human contact is minimal. In the course of accessing our equipment I am sometimes exposed to rodent nests and hanta virus potential so I carry a strong disinfectant to soak everything down. My wife, however, works at a childrens day care where all the little bacteria breeding modules expose her to all kinds of crap. I’m moving to my own room.
So, would you still place your half-eaten sandwich on a rock and then finish it? Or are you only worried about human-borne diseases here?
Broadly speaking, only the human borne diseases. Rocks are cool..they spend all day getting baked by UV sunlight. The sandwich counter in the food court, on the other hand, is a different story.