Tag Archives: bacteria

Dry hands or spread bacteria; paper towel better than blowers

Posted on by
Reply

Another meaningless survey relying on self-reporting has found 50 per cent of 1,053 U.S. respondents said they "wash their hands more thoroughly or longer or more frequently" in public restrooms as a result of the H1N1 virus – that’s up from 45 percent in 2009 when the same question was asked.

But even if people think they are vigilant about washing their hands – observational studies say they aren’t – are people washing and drying hands in a way to lower bacterial loads? Not drying hands thoroughly after washing them could increase the spread of bacteria, and rubbing hands whilst using a conventional electric hand dryer could be a contributing factor. Frequently people give up drying their hands and wipe them on their clothes instead.

That’s what I observed anecdotally when I first visited Kansas State University in 2005 and saw these groovy all-in-one hand units that are terrible for hand sanitation; paper towels were subsequently installed so people could at least dry their hands properly.

A study by researchers at the University of Bradford and published in the current Journal of Applied Microbiology evaluated three kinds of hand drying and their effect on transfer of bacteria from the hands to other surfaces: paper towels, traditional hand dryers, which rely on evaporation, and a new model of hand dryer, which rapidly strips water off the hands using high velocity air jets.??

In this study the researchers quantified the effects of hand drying by measuring the number of bacteria on different parts of the hands before and after different drying methods. Volunteers were asked to wash their hands and place them onto contact plates that were then incubated to measure bacterial growth. The volunteers were then asked to dry their hands using either hand towels or one of three hand dryers, with or without rubbing their hands together, and levels of bacteria were re-measured.

??Dr Snelling and her team found that rubbing the hands together whilst using traditional hand dryers could counteract the reduction in bacterial numbers following handwashing. Furthermore, they found that the relative reduction in the number of bacteria was the same, regardless of the hand dryer used, when hands were kept still. When hands are rubbed together during drying, bacteria that live within the skin can be brought to the surface and transferred to other surfaces, along with surface bacteria that were not removed by handwashing.

The researchers found the most effective way of keeping bacterial counts low, when drying hands, was using paper towels. Amongst the electric dryers, the model that rapidly stripped the moisture off the hands was best for reducing transfer of bacteria to other surfaces.
 

Always the bugs: Alexander the Great died from dirty water

Posted on by
Reply

Styx was a terrible band that I actually went to see in Toronto in 1979.

South Park has an episode where Cartman has to sing the entire Styx song, Come Sail Away, whenever he starts the song.

Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was killed by a deadly bacterium found in the River Styx, rather than by a fever brought on by an all-night drinking binge in ancient Babylon, scientists believe.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that researchers in the US.. have found a striking correlation between the symptoms he suffered before his death in 323BC, and the effects of the highly toxic bacterium.

Alexander fell ill during a party at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon, in modern Iraq. He complained of a ”sudden, sword-stabbing agony in the liver” and had to be taken to bed where, over the next 12 days, he developed a high fever and excruciating pains in his joints.

His condition worsened, he fell into a coma, and is believed to have died on June 10 or 11, 323BC – just shy of his 33rd birthday. Historians have speculated that his death was brought about by the heavy drinking, typhoid, malaria, acute pancreatitis, West Nile fever or poisoning.

But experts who have reviewed the circumstances of his death believe instead that he may have been killed by calicheamicin, a dangerous compound produced by bacteria.

Antoinette Hayes, co-author of the Stanford University research paper and a toxicologist at Pfizer Research in the US., said,

”It is extremely toxic. It is a metabolite – one of hundreds produced by soil bacteria. It grows on limestone, and there’s a lot of limestone in Greece.”
 

Reusable grocery bags harboring bacteria

Posted on by
1
Reusable grocery bags are indeed friendly to the environment but studies have shown that these bags may harbor foodborne pathogens. As such, it is important to wash your reusable bags frequently, just like you would with your dirty socks. Simply wash the bags using soap and water, machine dry, and reuse. The use of bleach may be overkill especially when the bags are meant to be environmentally friendly.  It is also a good idea to separate ready to eat foods, such as produce, from meat, poultry, and fish to prevent cross contamination. Perhaps designate one bag or bin for meat and meat products and all others for ready to eat products. I have also noticed that people tend to reuse their plastic bags as well, in particular, to carry lunches. Remember that bacteria aren’t picky and if that bag had been carrying raw meat, there’s always the potential of pathogenic bacteria being present, it doesn’t take much. 
 
 
Reusable grocery bags contaminated with E. coli, other bacteria***
These bags may be friendly to the environment, but not necessarily to you, according to a new report by researchers at two universities.
Reusable grocery bags can be a breeding ground for dangerous food-borne bacteria and pose a serious risk to public health, according to a joint food-safety research report issued today by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California.
The research study – which randomly tested reusable grocery bags carried by shoppers in Tucson, Los Angeles and San Francisco – also found consumers were almost completely unaware of the need to regularly wash their bags.
"Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from coliform bacteria including E. coli, which were detected in half of the bags sampled," said Charles Gerba, a UA professor of soil, water and environmental science and co-author of the study. "Furthermore, consumers are alarmingly unaware of these risks and the critical need to sanitize their bags on a weekly basis."
Bacteria levels found in reusable bags were significant enough to cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death. They are a particular danger for young children, who are especially vulnerable to food-borne illnesses, Gerba said.
The study also found that awareness of potential risks was very low. A full 97 percent of those interviewed never washed or bleached their reusable bags, said Gerba, adding that thorough washing kills nearly all bacteria that accumulate in reusable bags.

Driving in cars with girls and foodborne illness

Posted on by
Reply

I haven’t put on makeup, played video games or combed my hair while driving – because I never do any of those things – but I’ve done everything else in this pop survey released in May and discussed by my friend and his wife as they drove to Vermont and back.

According to the study:

• 72% eat food while driving.
• 35% have taken clothes off or put clothes on while driving.
• 29% have kissed others while driving and 15% have performed sexual acts while driving.
• 28% have sent text messages while driving.
• 23% say they’ve combed their hair while behind the wheel.
• 13% have put on makeup while driving.
• 12% have written or read e-mails while driving.
• 10% reported reading newspapers or magazines while driving.
• 5% confessed to having played video games.
• 5% say they have shaved while behind the wheel.

Yesterday the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported those who eat while driving could be at a greater risk of food poisoning.

Scientists testing swabs taken from a typical family car discovered Bacillus cereus and staphylococcus in the interior, including the steering wheel, gear stick and door handles.

Another pop science survey that is meaningless.

Dr Anthony Hilton, reader in microbiology at Aston University said,

“People would be horrified at the prospect of eating from a toilet seat however they ought to be aware that eating from a contaminated car dashboard may represent the same health hazards.”

Always a possibility. Another survey revealed 58 per cent of car owners had found food remains lying around the interior when cleaning out the car.

That doesn’t mean people eat it: hint, don’t eat the food lying around in a car.
 

Is qwerty tummy real?

Posted on by
2

It’s called “qwerty tummy,” the idea that office workers or people like me who do everything around the notebook keyboard are spilling food crumbs that attract mice that then leave their droppings and disease and make people barf.

Qwerty being the first six letters on a keyboard. Get it?

A N.Y. Times word blogger wrote it up today, based on a story that appeared May 12, 2010 in the Daily Mail.

The Royal Society of Chemistry says mice are leaving droppings in computer keyboards as they search for food crumbs in empty offices at night. Their claims come amid a rise in anecdotal evidence suggesting mice are becoming an increasing problem.

One London cleaning firm told them: ‘A woman worker wondered why ‘seeds’ were coming out of her computer keyboard when she typed. She was mystified because she did not eat food at her desk. An investigation showed them to be mice droppings.’

I get asked about these pop safety surveys all the time – someone wants to sample keyboards (left, photo from Daily Mail), or door handles, or money, or lemon wedges or iced tea dispensers and yes, there are bacteria present, but where are the bodies? Where are the sick people from these practices?

I should have taken a picture this morning of the nightly offering held forth by our cats – a dead mouse on the front porch. The cats need to do a much better job scaring off the rabbits from our lettuce patch.

Wamego, the Wizard of Oz and petting zoos

Posted on by
1

Every time I say, I’m from Kansas, some genius makes a remark about Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

Wamego (Kansas), about 20 miles from Manhattan (Kansas) is more than the home of the Wizard of Oz museum (visited by a couple of my daughters, right, exactly as shown), where fights among the little people on the set of the movie are depicted in all their glory. It is also apparently home to the annual Tulip Festival, which ran this weekend.

A couple of my colleagues went tuliping on Saturday, and found the fair also included a lot of food and a petting zoo: a poorly supervised petting zoo, where little kids could walk in and swap saliva with a bunch of animals like cows, and llamas and alpacas, without supervision, and then go eat food or suck their fingers or whatever.

I’m told there were signs, there were wipes available, but is that really enough, especially given all the tragic outbreaks that have been linked to petting zoos? And the handwashing facilities were about 30 yards removed from this sign (left).