Sunday, August 9, 2009

Hand Sanitizer

This stuff may make sense in hospitals, but it's a waste of time and money in the real world, which is so plastered with "germs" that it's best to let nature take its course.

The very concept of "germs" was created by the advertising industry to sell products. Germs are evil little cartoon characters that only "Scrubbing Bubbles" and other cartoon heroes can deal with. The end goal here is always to sell you something, and to do that the commercial world invents new threats you never knew existed.

In reality, the only "germs" are bacteria, viruses and maybe mold spores. Mankind has been living with them since the beginning of time, and we have reached a detente: the microbes do their thing, and we develop defenses against them. By going overboard on sanitation you may end up disrupting the detente and ultimately giving the microbes the upper hand.

At best, hand sanitizers and similar products are simply ineffective. There are too many germs in the environment and too many ways for them to get to you. At worst, sanitation products may actually weaken your immune system and breed stronger germs.

Take a product that claims to kill "99% of all bacteria". Sounds good, right? Wrong! What about the 1% of bacteria that weren't killed? That's right, they multiply! Since they weren't killed by the product initially, they must have an immunity to it, so your next generation of bacteria are going to laugh the product off.

The body's best defense against disease agents is its own immune system. You keep the immune system primed by ALLOWING it access to disease agents. People who live in plastic bubbles never have a chance to develop immunities, so when disease agents inevitably get through the plastic wrap, the body has little defense.

The same concept applies to antibiotics. The inevitable effect of the overuse of antibiotics is that we have bred stronger bacteria resistant to them. That's yet another case of a "miracle" product turning into a bad thing in the long term. (In truth, there are no miracles in life, only trade-offs.)

I'm not suggesting you forgo antibiotics if you need them to stay alive and or that you you should bathe in germs, like swimming in the river Ganges. You just don't need to go overboard and try to kill ALL germs. It's probably a good idea to keep wounds clean, wash your hands after going to the bathroom and take a shower on occasion to reduce the bacterial hordes, since even the strongest immune system can be overwhelmed. But you don't need to use a hand sanitizer every time you touch a door knob or shake someone's hand.

That's just sick! You need to contact life directly, without a hundred lotions, sprays and obsessive-compulsive rituals getting in the way. Just shake hands, kiss babies, use public toilets and when you begin to stink, take a shower.

You don't want a flabby immune system, do you? Give it some exercise!

7 comments:

  1. I completely agree. I never use hand sanitizer. I'm healthy as a horse and I'd like to stay that way.

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  2. "At best, hand sanitizers and similar products are simply ineffective."

    There seems to be a large body of clinical research that contradicts this assertion. Do you have any objective evidence to back up this claim?

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  3. In our house-there are three adults (two work out of the home) and three children in the home as well. Water usage can get out of hand. Hand Sanitizer has been great for hand washing after potty breaks. Especially when the children tend to leave the water on longer than necessary and even leave it running at times. I turned the water off on all bathroom sinks - for our family it is a better choice environmentally and good for the wallet!

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    Replies
    1. if you cant afford water you cant afford 3 kids, dumbass!

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete
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  6. The 99% of germs claim on bleach is because, legally, to claim 100% would mean they'd need to prove not. a. single. germ. survived, out of however many billion they were in the petri dish. Germs are small. Spotting one over a space as vast and empty as a petri dish is impossible. Therefore it's impossible to tell, with certainty, that you've killed all germs.

    Bleach, and other disinfectants, kill 99.999 and however many 9s percent of all germs. But rather than argue over the 9s, or print them on the label, they just go with "99%" cos that's still a lot. This is all due to labelling regulations.

    Yes, antibiotics are in an arms race with bacteria. This is because antibiotics have limitations placed on them, mostly "kill all bacterial cells, but DON'T kill any eukaryotic cells (eg people)". So drug chemist work on the borderline between the two types, what will kill this, but not that?

    In the case of bleach that doesn't matter and you can just oxidise the shit out of anything it comes into contact with, that's deadly to all and your kitchen sideboard doesn't give a shit, having long ago died before it was made into fibreboard. Make sure you get every corner, and there's nothing going to survive long enough to evolve, any more than it could evolve resistance to fire.

    Incidentally, since the discovery of Germ Theory as a cause of disease, and the widespread recognition of the important of hygeine, death and disease rates have plummeted to a fraction of what they were before. It's now considered unusual to die in surgery or childbirth, since surgeons started washing their hands! Germs are real and need controlling. We've lost our fear of them BECAUSE previous generations did such a good job of controlling them. But there's still food poisoning and infections, germs do still kill some of us, so best to do whatever we can to keep the little bastards down.

    ReplyDelete