Minor microbial musings
John E. Peterson
Thursday, May 31, 2007
THOUGHTS about microbes in our daily life are reasonable for some of us, I suppose. I think it is for me. I have spent much of my life studying bacteria and fungi. I have spent much of my life teaching about them. Having isolated microbes, grown them in the lab, studied them under the microscope, etc., for many, many years could be expected to have been an influence. Even though all of that is long over now, thoughts about microbes still stick in this old mind.
Most of the aspects which come into this old mind now, however, and result in musings about them, have to do with coming in contact with microbes in daily life. I would tell you a bit about such thoughts, if I had my way.
Later in the afternoon is one of the times when I regularly muse about microbes. That is because I regularly go to the exercise room in the Lee Beran Recreation Center at about four o’clock in the afternoon. These rooms are full of machines on which people sit while manipulating the machine motions with their hands and bodies. The people work hard and get sweaty. Consequently, those machines get a good many microbes on them.
The Center provides bottles of antiseptic to spray on the machines and towels to wipe off the spray. The users are asked to cleanse the machine when done using it. Many people do, but some do not bother. Others give the machine a superficial cleansing. One of my regular musings concerns what microbes might be on the machine I am about to sit on and grasp its handles. Ah, well, I tell myself, the microbes would be gone, if I had my way.
There are two stair sections one must traverse to get up to the machine rooms. There is a rail on each side and I use both in getting up and down the stairs because my balance requires such stability. How many microbes are on those stair rails? I usually ask myself. I have seen them swiped down once or twice over the years, but how often are they actually cleaned?
Well! I muse about the microbes in all these places in the Rec Center so much that I always stop at the restroom after my exercises. I wash my hands with soap and water. I do not want to carry any of the Rec Center microbes to the steering wheel on my car, if I have my way.
Speaking of stopping in the restroom brings another area of microbial musing. It has always been my habit to watch whether other restroom-users are also hand washers. So many are not. I am washing my hands, another fellow does not, dashes to the door, grasps the handle and pulls the door open. Even with my clean hands, there is no way I can get out without grasping that same door handle to pull the door open. I suspect I got some of his microbes on my clean hands. How could it be any other way, I muse.
Speaking of restrooms reminds me of this experience. I have always kept a tooth brush in my office. That is so that I can brush after lunch when I do not go home. I was doing this in the restroom. A student was already in there. When he was finished, he did not bother to wash his hands, he just looked at me brushing my teeth over a sink and loudly said, “Ick!” Out he dashed. He was the same young man I had seen spitting his chewing tobacco into one of those sinks about four days before. He never even turned the water on to wash it out. Which was the bigger “Ick!” I wondered.
Another restroom story. This one is somewhat gross, but I saw it told on TV, so I should be able to tell it here. It was on the Johnnie Carson show years ago, but I have never forgotten it. Famous movie actor Jimmy Stewart was the guest. Somehow, they got to where he was telling this story. He was in the restroom doing his thing when the man right next to him happened to look over and said, “Oh! You’re Jimmy Stewart!” Then he raised a hand and held it out. Jimmy Stewart said that he refused the invitation to shake hands under those circumstances.
Speaking of handshaking, I usually accept a hand when it is offered to me. And sometimes I offer my hand first. I always wonder however, where that other hand has been? Does it have any microbes on it? Shaking hands is always a time of microbial musing for me, but it is an important social custom for we humans. We would keep doing it, if I had my way.
Earlier in this column, I mentioned stair railings. How often do they get cleaned — or even just wiped off? That brings another musing, which often is stimulated in my microbial mind. This one has to do with the arms and backs of chairs in various reception rooms in public places — even in doctors’ offices, other health places, barber shops, restaurants, etc. As I run my hands over these arms and backs, some are sticky, some feel pebbly, some feel smooth. How often are they cleaned, I wonder? What sort of hands were on them before mine?
There, then, you have some of my rather regular, but wild, microbial musings. I hope I have not been too nasty, but the spreading of germs and other microbes is not exactly a pleasant topic. Think about what you might do to reduce such spreading. You would, if I had my way.
a_b_d (anonymous) says...
Right on, John! Some of us think about or worry about the same things. I have bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere. I learned years ago about spreading microbes (and chemicals too!). It doesn't take many times wiping jalapeno juice in your eyes to learn how to spread or not spread chemicals/microbes/burning sensations around from counter tops to door handles to eyes to other body parts.
May 31, 2007 at 1:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
daveedailey (anonymous) says...
Mr Peterson, I find your article amusing. I am what you call a clean freak but not spotless. We grew up in a world that allowed us to be sick--measles, mumps, chicken pox, and various other illnesses. I really believe my generation is healther because of it. Microbes were little thought of except for an epidemic. We were taught that hand washing was the best defense. I think that a lot of todays problems are the fact that a lot of the cleaning chemicals kill the bad and the good. I honestly believe that the bad ones will mutate and one day we will not be able to control them. Look how the high powered antibiotics have been abused and many people are now immune to them. People need to catch a common cold or virus once in a while, although miserable, I do believe that it does help stimulate the immune system to ward off other diseases, etc. Yes, I believe in cleanliness but I do not think it needs to go to extremes. I work in an enviroment that requires exceptional cleanliness and believe me all areas are cleaned and disinfected daily, even the door knobs and railings.
May 31, 2007 at 2:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )