Wash Your Hands after Grocery Shopping

[Book]

http://i.usatoday.net/yourlife/_photos/2011/03/02/grocerycartx-large.jpg

Carts one of dirtiest places in grocery store, study says

A University of Arizona researcher says you may want to grab one of those disinfectant wipes right before you grab a grocery cart.

Professor Charles Gerba, the lead researcher, swabbed the handles of 85 carts in four states for bacterial contamination.

Gerba says 72% of the carts had a positive marker for fecal bacteria. When they examined some of the samples, they found Escherichia coli, also known as E. coli, on half of them.

Researchers say they actually found more fecal bacteria on grocery cart handles than you would typically find in a bathroom, mainly because bathrooms are disinfected more often than shopping carts.

Since most stores do not routinely wash and disinfect their carts, it's up to you to do it.

Scientists say this study helps explain why earlier investigations found kids who touch the handles, are more likely than others, to get infected with bacteria like salmonella.

Gerba also says you should pay attention to what you put in reusable shopping bags. Make sure your meats and veggies are wrapped because bags that are not washed on a regular basis can become a what he called a "bacterial swamp."

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/2011-03-02-grocerycarts_N.htm

:o

[SLV^GLD]

Be afraid. Use antibacterial wipes so that we can culture super bugs everywhere.

Seriously, though, just wash your hands throughout the day and keep them away from your face and mouth unless recently cleaned. Skip the fear mongering.

[drafter]

Good hygene is important, but this germ paranoa we seem to be experiencing is just making us weaker and less able to heal ourselves in the long run.

[mightymanx]

Yep you two saved me a lot of typing.

[madfranks]

I tend to agree with SLV^GLD and drafter, but when it comes to fecal matter on the cart handles, I will use a disinfectant wipe for that.

[SLV^GLD]

I tend to agree with SLV^GLD and drafter, but when it comes to fecal matter on the cart handles, I will use a disinfectant wipe for that.
Why not just follow the advice given in the thread title? The main problem with the wipes is you are most likely not going to correctly apply the disinfectant in such a way as to eradicate the microbes. Additionally, there are plenty of other surfaces that are publicly used that will prove just as dirty. Are you going to incessantly wipe down every public surface you encounter? I certainly see plenty of people doing just that.

Finally, have you ever looked up the more popular ingredients they are putting in these disinfectants? I'd say you are putting yourself at more risk touching certain disinfectants that soak into your bloodstream through skin contact than you you are touching some doodoo that you can wash off. For fun, do some research on Triclosan then read the bottles and see how often it appears.

I'm calling Problem Reaction Solution on the whole germ scare.

[Book]

My title for this thread seems reasonable.

:D

[ximmy]

Always wash your hands before you pee...

[SLV^GLD]

Old Herb Lady:
Do you think this would have been better prevented by wiping the cart with a disinfectant or just washing the kids hands once it got home?
Also, just out of curiosity, how is it you are so certain it came from a shopping cart and from nowhere else?
Also, why didn't you (or whoever was with the child at the time) also contract the disease?


Pop Quiz:
How often do you wash your hands before and/or after using yours or any other computer keyboard/mouse?
Yeah, thought so.

[SLV^GLD]

Yeah, I already qualified my position with admonition to keep your hands away from your face and mouth until they were washed.
I don't have kids so I don't tend to look at things from the "think of the children" perspective that gets used and abused so much that anytime I'm requested to do so I promptly tune it out.

Poor child.

[zap]

I wonder how much nasty stuff is on playground equipment, with all the little boogers, snottin, and coughin' hackin, sliding down the slide with poopy diapers, hahahahah I am sure I get it on me too, gross! :D

Makes your immune system stronger though. LOL

[SLV^GLD]

Makes your immune system stronger though. LOL
That's the way I see it.
I noticed in Old Herb Lady's example the kid apparently rarely gets out. The fact that the kid got sick from a relatively rare disease and the fact that kid displays out of control behavior are, to this outside observer, linked to the fact that he rarely gets out.

[muffin]

I'm torn with this one. I see it both OHL's way and SLV's way. My mom let me get dirty as a child. I ate bugs when she wasn't looking. I ate my mudpies :) I shared my toys with other kids. And because of that, I RARELY get sick. But I still will occasionally use the free wipies by the carts at chinamart. I freak out when I get chicken juice on my hands when trying to put it in the cart. All I can think of is the stupid commercials for Lysol (they've brainwashed me). I also slather on some handsanitizer after taking in the recycling. I think it's mostly just the gross factor with that one. But I will now research the whole Triclosan thing as per SLV's advice.

I've always thought the kids nowadays are too sheltered. Parents don't let them get out and get dirty. I've seen kids that were constantly wiped and cleaned anytime any little bit of dirt got on them. And I've always thought that that was why we see so many allergies to different foods and outbreaks of sicknesses.

As far as fearmongering, our local news teevee has a segment called "What's Going Around". It irritates me to no end. Why do they feel they need to do that? It will just cause people to freak out and run to their doctor as soon as they sneeze. Ugh.

All this makes me think of my sister. She's a pediatric nurse. She's constantly getting sick with whatever the kids come in with. In that aspect, I'm glad I don't live with her anymore ;)

[Road Runner]

I wonder how much nasty stuff is on playground equipment, with all the little boogers, snottin, and coughin' hackin, sliding down the slide with poopy diapers, hahahahah I am sure I get it on me too, gross! :D

Makes your immune system stronger though. LOL


What about that play thing at McDonalds with all the little balls they play in??? My daughter was there one time and her kids were in there and some little kid threw up. She said other kids kept jumping so it all got spread around. She doesn't let them play in that particular place anymore. It is gross to think of all the germs when you focus on it. Maybe I will have to make some home made wipes like OHL!! Can't trust anything these days!!

[muffin]

Homemade Herbal Disenfectant Wipes:

You can use bounty paper towels cut in half or the bounty select-a-size
or you can use unscented baby wipes.
You can store them in ziploc bags or in a baby wipe container.

In a bowl put in a couple of cups of witch hazel and add a few drops of your favorite disenfectant essential oils.
You can use one oil or several different kinds)
(Like rosemary, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, tea tree oil, thyme oil, cinnamon, clove etc)

Soak the paper towel or wipe & squeeze out all the excess liquid until you have just a wet cloth.
Fold them up & put into your container of choice.

(Essential oils have to be organic, 100 % pure......that way they will help to kill the superbugs created by the modern day wipes.)



Thank you! I'm all over this!