Interesting

[Den Socling]

Patti thought up a science project for the Grandsons. Look for the "germiest" surface in the house. She bought some petri dishes with agar in them. The boys made a list of things to check. They then took swabs of different surfaces and swabbed the agar. The results? Handle on the toilet was clean. Grandson's mouth was clean. Patti's keyboard is filthy as expected. But the surface with the most germs so far, and this is surprising and disgusting, the handle of our refrigerator!     

[Ron Wenrich]

Don't check your countertops.  They are usually pretty bad.  Everyone wipes them down with a dirty dishrag and hope its clean.  Cutting boards are other suspect areas.

[Den Socling]

Like I told Furby, Patti knew about the dirty dishrag problem. She uses a sponge which soaks in a dish with some bleach. The refrigerator handle is puzzling. Patti and my daughter keep the boys hands clean as they can but that must not be clean enough.

[Ianab]

Not really surprising as you often open the fridge with wet and food covered hands...

Food and moisture = breeding ground from bacteria.

But, has anyone done any study about bacteria numbers and peoples overall health?

There are many theories that excessive cleanliness is contributing to an increase in allergy type complaints as peoples immune systems are not developing normally, by being exposed to every day germs?

Not say that we should live in a pig sty, but trying to live in a sterile bubble certainly wont work either.

Cutting boards and raw food are areas to watch of course, as there are specific food borne illnesses that you can culture there, that you certainly don't want to catch... but a little "dirt"? Meh.

Ian

[CHARLIE]

That reminds me of an experience way back in the last century, circa 1968.  I was taking a Zoology class at Florida Atlantic University and the professor passed out petri dishes and our assignment was to contaminate them and record what we had done.  I forgot hot I contaminated my petri dish but the fungus growth in mine was pretty hum drum.  But a girl in the class had an absolutely beautiful petri dish of fungus. There were bright orange, yellow, green colors.  The professor asked her what she used to contaminate it.  She replied that she had used the hair off her dog's back. I think of that everytime I pet a dog.  

[Den Socling]

Shoot! Our dog just went to the groomer. Wish we would have thought of a swab from the dog. He sure doesn't believe in living in a sterile bubble. First thing he will want to do when he gets home will be finding something to roll in.  :D

[Ron Wenrich]

They do blame a lot of problems on the alcohol based soaps.  They keep on killing both the good ones and some of the bad ones.  But, the resistant ones keep on getting worse.  I stay away from those soaps whenever I can, and use mainly bar soap. 

They've done a lot of experimenting in most hospitals.  After years of scrubbing with those soaps, they have some pretty persistent bacteria that they can't kill.  Our local hospital is teeming with the MRSA staph infection.  Go for a minor operation and come out with MRSA.   

I'm sure Docb will be chiming in on this one.

[tyb525]

I avoid antibacterial soaps and use old fashioned lye bar soap (when I can). I have never used alcohol-based hand cleaners unless I was forced to. They didn't hardly have them when my parents were kids, and they are in good health today. I agree with the immune system theory, if germs are never encountered, the immune system gets lazy. Then when germs are encountered, your body can't fight them near as well. It's like exercise, the more you exercise your muscles, the better they will perform when strength is needed.

[zopi]

MRSA brought my dad down...after a gall bladder operation....after checking into some studies done about the bad bugs in our hospitals, I would almost rather have my tonsils out in a Mexican Jail.

[thecfarm]

There are so many people that come through or into a hospital that is carry a bad germ and it does not bother them,but might get you sick.A good friend had something that was inside him for who knows how long. He helped someone load a snowmobile beside the road,just helping the guy out,had no idea who he was. He had to strain a bit to get it in. He kinda pulled something on his left side. Whatever that germ was attacked his left side because it was weak and injured. He was in the hospital for 5-6 days and than at home he had to have IVs a couple times a day. Wife was in 2 different hospital and I noticed everyone getting suited up to go into a room,visitors too.I asked what was wrong. They called it Mercer,probably spelled wrong. Real nasty. If a family member has it,the whole family or anyone that comes in contact with them can be a carrier.

[Cedarman]

For an interesting experiment do swabs on wooden cutting boards and plastic cutting boards.

[LeeB]

Do one on your toothbrush. Will make you shudder.

[Dodgy Loner]

For an interesting experiment do swabs on wooden cutting boards and plastic cutting boards.

I was thinking the same thing. Any idea how that one would turn out? I remember reading somewhere that wooden cutting boards typically harbored less bacteria than plastic, due to the natural antimicrobial compounds in the wood. I suspect it would be different for different woods, though. Your typical cutting board materials, like maple, birch, and sycamore, tend to have few extractives. It would seem to me that richly-colored, rot-resistant woods, like cherry, walnut, oak, and cedar would make the most microbial-resistant cutting boards. But that's just my hypothesis.

[beenthere]

Yes, the wood boards surprisingly to the researchers came out ahead.

Scientists at the Food Research Institute, Department of
Food Microbiology and Toxicology, University of Wisconsin at
Madison, began research to try to find a way to make wooden
cutting boards just as sanitary as plastic cutting boards *seem*
to be. Later, a distributor of both wooden and plastic boards,
concerned about the safety of his products, raised funds in his
industry, to help underwrite the research.

     The scientists in charge of the investigation were Dr. Dean
Cliver and Dr. Nese Ak, both microbiologists. Their findings were
so startling that they made national headlines, through an
Associated Press story written by Mary MacVean, and distributed
on March 10, 1993. Subsequently Dr. Cliver sent me a copy of his
and Dr. Ak's five-page preliminary report, which has not yet been
published, and he explained to me over the telephone some of the
details of their research.

Didn't search for more recent reports.
http://www.knife-expert.com/cut-bo93.txt

[Ianab]

One theory is that wood is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture.

This means that it effectively sucks the water out of any gunge that's left on it. Bacteria can't multiply in a dry environment, so it dies or at least goes dormant.

A plastic board quickly gets scratched, and the scratches can harbour bacteria and food residues in little pockets that stay moist much longer, so gives bacteria a better chance to multiply.

Whatever the actual reason, it's good news for wooden cutting boards 

Ian