"Debbie Deutsch" wrote in message
. 97.132...
"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


"John White" wrote in message
om...
To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the
rack onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.


To be realistic, kitchen towels and sponges are vectors for the spread
of germs in your kitchen. I doubt that the germs on the floor are
more pathogenic than the germs on your counters. That probably seems
counter-intuitive, but I suspect it is true. You hands, sink, and
counter come into contact with contaminated food and the towel just
spread the contamination. The floor isn't as likely to have raw
poultry or eggs on it. I would just get rid of the towel instead of
finding a way to keep them around longer. I use paper towels for most
cleaning. When I do use a kitchen towel, I only use it once.




At the risk of controversy, people may be worrying too much about germs.
We don't live in a sterile environment, and never will. Some bacteria
can be very bad and following good procedure is important to minimize
their risk. The "bad" germs are mostly the ones that grow on and in
food, not the ones we associated with dirt or general things in the air.
For example, it makes good sense to keep a separate cutting board for raw
poultry and to thoroughly clean it, knives, your hands after each use.
On the other hand, there are plenty of other germs around, and our bodies
are designed to deal with them. Unless one's immune system is
compromised due to disease or other frailty, they are not a big deal.
That's good, because we can't get rid of them anyway. They are in the
air, on our clothes, on and in our bodies, and on every tool and object
that we use.

Restaurants and other food preparation facilities must take special care
against food-borne diseases and the general issue of avoiding wide-spead
problems due to contaminated food being distributed to a large
population. Remember that at home a lot of food is fresh and prepared
for immediate consumption - this is a lot less problematic than food that
is put up in cans or jars for later use.

(FWIW, if someone in your home is sneezing, no amount of kitchen
cleanliness is going to eliminate your chance of catching his cold.
Besides which, colds are viral and not affected by things that kill
bacteria.)

To put this in perspective, I think about how my cats clean themselves
with their tongues. If my floors were breeding grounds of deadly
bacteria, certainly my cats were be under daily assault. However two are
very happy and healthy at 15 and show no indications of slowing down.
Remember that understanding about germs is a very recent thing in human
history. Until then, humans have had the same biological need to resist
environmental bacteria as my cats. It makes sense to keep things clean,
but we generally don't need a sterile environment to be healthy.

Debbie

Thanks for the excellent, clear post. As you say, many people are fearful of
"germs" because they are ignorant. I find it useful to buy inexpensive
towels in large quantities - several dozen at a time. Then I can always grab
a clean one when there is any question that the previous one has been
contaminated.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.