Washing your hands of food poisoning
I'm not for anything that smacks of "Big Brother" meddling
in our daily lives…
But I'll say this, to If there were some high-tech way to
make sure people wash their hands EVERY TIME after using the
bathroom, I'd give it my vote in a heartbeat.
Why? Because the widespread failure to execute this one
simple staple of good hygiene results in the spread of
infectious disease more often than just about anything short
of biological warfare. In fact, research shows that a
leading cause of food poisoning in the U.S. is residual
fecal matter on the hands of restaurant employees who forget
to scrub after, well… you know. Tens of millions get sick
every year for this reason alone.
Unpleasant to think about, yes, but true nonetheless.
And here's what's really mind-numbing about that factoid:
Restaurant employees are often required BY LAW to wash up
after using the bathroom, and there's usually a sign posted
to tell them so. If these people still aren't washing with
enough regularity or thoroughness to stop from causing
millions of cases of food poisoning, think of how widespread
non-washing must be among the general populace - who aren't
confronted with a big, red warning sign on the bathroom door
reminding them to wash up.
But in the near future, there may be a solution to this
unsanitary dilemma. According to a recent Associated Press
story, a company that designs and markets blue-light
scanners to the meat industry for contamination control at
packing and handling plants may soon market a compact
version of the device designed to detect even minute amounts
of fecal matter on human hands.
If the restaurant industry - not to mention nursing homes,
hospitals, day-care centers, etc. - were to embrace this
technology en masse (or be required by legislation to do
so), the problem as we know it might nearly be eradicated…
Now, if we could just link these units up to the door
latches in public restrooms, we'd be onto something. Think
about it: If people couldn't leave the lavatory until they'd
scrubbed and scanned their hands, they'd do it every time.
What choice would they have?
Obviously, I like the idea of this kind of technology.
Unless, of course, it gets adopted for all the wrong
reasons - like if some paternalistic government agency
starts using it to sniff out cigarette smokers…
It could happen.
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Killing killer bugs - with killer bugs?
It's almost summertime, and it's once again time for the
policy-makers and do-gooders to grapple with what has shaped
up to be a question for the ages: To spray, or not to spray -
with pesticides, I mean.
But this time, the stakes are higher than just damaged crops
or de-foliated oak trees.
In the last few years, a species of caterpillar that's
potentially DEADLY to humans has begun to spread rapidly
beyond its few isolated pockets in and around New England.
Called the browntail moth, this creeping critter closely
resembles the gypsy moth and has caused the deaths of at
least two researchers. Merely touching the little bugger
causes skin welts and severe rashes, along with debilitating
respiratory attacks in some cases.
Yet instead of breaking out the ultimate weapon against
these killer 'pillars (pesticides like harmless and
effective DDT), the environMENTAL wackos have instead
developed what could only be considered a huge question
mark - an ecological experiment the risks and long-term
effects of which are completely unknown.
They've created a VIRUS that infects and kills only the
browntail moth. They hope.
Preliminary trials of this killer "bug" show promise at
killing the bugs. But what's not known is whether the birds
that eat the moths, the cats that eat the birds, the
children the cats scratch, and the parents the kids kiss are
vulnerable to this virus as well. Seems they didn't bother
to study this before unleashing their "frankenvirus" into
the ecosystem.
My point is this: Is it realistic to believe that test-tube
terrors like this one WON'T come back to haunt (or hunt) us
in the future? You can't test everything, you know…
Why can't we just break out the DDT and be done with it?
Washing my hands of the pesticide pessimism,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
