Thought of the Day Re: Hand Sanitizers

[ditchdj]

How come when I compare how often I get sick every cold and flu season I dont see any difference as opposed to 20 years ago when we didnt even have these bottles sitting on almost every business and school teacher's desk??? :(

BTW I've STILL hacking and coughing up green crap for the THIRD WEEK NOW! :mad:

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Green shit coming out of your lungs for third week means you probably ought to go to the doc's, my friend. :( Probably an infection. Do you have a fever?

[ditchdj]

Green shit coming out of your lungs for third week means you probably ought to go to the doc's, my friend. :( Probably an infection. Do you have a fever?

It just takes me longer to get over it when it gets into my chest. A doctor told me it because, in part, from smoking for eight years and it changes the lung structure permanently as to where it's harder to get rid of a chest cold. I'm actually better for the most part. I'm now in the process of clearing out the last bits of it from my chest.

[crazylegs]

Green shit coming out of your lungs for third week means you probably ought to go to the doc's, my friend.

I'll second that, anything that comes out of your lungs that isn't clear should get checked out.

[Broomjockey]

The reason is because your immune system never gets a workout, so that it can't handle when something nasty comes along. Really, I think the only time you should be using that stuff is during the major cold/flu season because germs are so much more prevelant then that you're only really bringing it down to more average levels. If you never get mild sicknesses, the big ones will knock you out forever until your immune system can build up the anti-bodies again.

I pretty much never use hand sanitizer, only wash my hands before meals or after the bathroom, or when especially groady, and that's it. I haven't had a major (or even medium) illness since about Sept. 2002. And during that time I worked pretty closely with the public, handling large amounts of money, so really, I should have gotten wiped at least once.

[FuzzyKitten99]

How come when I compare how often I get sick every cold and flu season I dont see any difference as opposed to 20 years ago when we didnt even have these bottles sitting on almost every business and school teacher's desk??? :(

BTW I've STILL hacking and coughing up green crap for the THIRD WEEK NOW! :mad:

because this country's obsession with anti-bacterial everything (i see anti-microbial pens now! Talk about paranoia.) has turned the majority of the people into OCD-level germophobes. General handwashing with basic sanitary habits will suffice, as will good diet with extra vitamin c, and plenty of sleep.

what people don't realize is that a lot of the anti-bacterial agents in dishsoap and handsoap are actually diluted pesticides, and not all of those don't go down the drain after washing... they leave a residue on your hands that can make you sick. It is becoming more commonplace for pediatricians to ask parents to not use antibacterial dishsoap on infant bottles/nipples and toys because of the residue.

They also wash away the good bacteria on your hands that help your skin defend from other sicknesses.

Seriously, unless you have a suppressed immune system, you really don't need every product to be anti-bacterial, if any. Being as I work with kids daily, you would think that based on current beliefs, I should be getting sick monthly. My last cold was 2 months ago, and before that, it was back in January. This last time I only needed about 7-8 days to get over it fully. The one in Jan lasted 15 days because of the ear infection that was a result from the cold.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

because this country's obsession with anti-bacterial everything (i see anti-microbial pens now! Talk about paranoia.) has turned the majority of the people into OCD-level germophobes. General handwashing with basic sanitary habits will suffice, as will good diet with extra vitamin c, and plenty of sleep.

what people don't realize is that a lot of the anti-bacterial agents in dishsoap and handsoap are actually diluted pesticides, and not all of those don't go down the drain after washing... they leave a residue on your hands that can make you sick. It is becoming more commonplace for pediatricians to ask parents to not use antibacterial dishsoap on infant bottles/nipples and toys because of the residue.

They also wash away the good bacteria on your hands that help your skin defend from other sicknesses.

Seriously, unless you have a suppressed immune system, you really don't need every product to be anti-bacterial, if any. Being as I work with kids daily, you would think that based on current beliefs, I should be getting sick monthly. My last cold was 2 months ago, and before that, it was back in January. This last time I only needed about 7-8 days to get over it fully. The one in Jan lasted 15 days because of the ear infection that was a result from the cold.

I tried using the sanitizer gel for awhile, but not only does the residue stay on your hands, it will also dry them out.

I noticed this last winter when working on register . . . and I was using that several times during a shift. Combine that with the fact that I don't own a dishwasher (sadly) and have to wash dishes manually, my hands had dried out so much, they started cracking and bleeding.:eek:

So, I stopped using the sanitizer and went back to moisturizing at least twice a day (especially at nighttime) and my hands eventually cleared up.

I may use some every once in a great while, but as much as I'm washing my hands during the day (of course, every bathroom visit or when they get really bad or when I get ready to go either on break/lunch or home) I think using the sanitizer on top of that is just overkill.

Not only are you drying out your hands and depleting them of natural oils, but eventually the germs become immune to the stuff and we'll end up with a bunch of supergerms that nothing will rid us of.

Now I'll probably have nightmares of giant Godzilla-sized germs rampaging through town :runaway:

[ditchdj]

I'll second that, anything that comes out of your lungs that isn't clear should get checked out.

I'll be all right. I get these often in the same order of symptoms every season. I'm actually in the "end stages" of it where it's thinning out and easier to cough up and I otherwise feel normal. It's mainly just a nuisance for me right now, especially going into another busy workweek and I get into a ten-minute coughing fit. I'm trying to get over it with just vitamins because I can't afford to add on a doctor bill as well as $60 dollars for antibiotics. My point is that all these anti-bacterial products and using them have NOT reduced the number of colds and sicknesses that I've been getting.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I hate hand sanitizer. My skin gets dry enough without rubbing alcohol into it. I keep a bottle of Dove Hand Wash on my desk at work. Sometimes I get dirty/dusty so I wash my hands a lot. The soap at work kills me. I'll pump a little hand wash in my hand, and start rubbing it in on my way into the bathroom, then rinse. I can really feel a difference from regular soap. If my skin's not too dry I don't even need to follow it with lotion.

[blas]

I agree on the hand sanitizer!

At the gas station and grocery store, I used to use it religiously after icky customers, and it just dried my skin out really bad.

[FuzzyKitten99]

I do keep sanitizer handy, but it is for those times that I just cannot wash up on the go. I rub a little of it in, and then use a baby-wipe (I love the Huggies Cucumber-Melon scent) to do the rest. The aloe in the wipes helps keep my hands from getting dry and cracked.

[ditchdj]

Hand sanitizer to me is like adding Slick 50 "engine treatment" to a car: Does absolutely nothing for me.

[Becks]

I pretty much never use hand sanitizer, only wash my hands before meals or after the bathroom, or when especially groady, and that's it. I haven't had a major (or even medium) illness since about Sept. 2002. And during that time I worked pretty closely with the public, handling large amounts of money, so really, I should have gotten wiped at least once.

Same here.

Honestly, I'm so majorly overdue for the flu, it's not even funny.

I utterly despise hand sanitizer. It'll end up making you sicker, you know. I try to avoid things labled "antibacterial".