Superbugs. Scary stuff. Which reminds me, there’s another hygiene-related oddity I’ve noticed over here (in addition to the antibacterial wipes at the grocery store). Every time I’ve been in the ladies’ room here at the office and another woman has come in, she’s used a toilet seat cover. (I can hear it being pulled out of the box.) Isn’t that weird? Is it just me? I can’t remember the last time I used one, if in fact I ever have. I probably would if it were some really grotty public toilet, but we’re talking about a new, modern restroom in a private office building with maybe 25 businesswomen using it. It gets cleaned every night. What are they protecting themselves from? The occasional drop of wee on the seat? How do these women function when they’re forced to use a bathroom without a box of seat covers mounted on the wall??
Rachel
August 7, 2008 — 1:15 pm
mmm I just think it’s odd. To be graphic, if there is a spot of visible wee, I use toilet roll to wipe it off, Ok it’s probably a v generous wad of toilet roll, and I try to sit on the toilet so the important bits aren’t on the seat, y’know. I wash my hands, I shower, if I have a cut in the vacinity I may even put a plaster on it. If the loo is obviously dirty I will cross my legs and bear it, or use it as an excuse to exercise those thigh muscles.
I know that hospitals are the worst places for picking up nasties, That’s why we do all we can to avoid going there. Including building health immune systems to fight the little everyday bugs.
I was on the bus to the city the other day, it was pretty busy, and a girl got on, standing room only, but she didn’t want to hold on to the poles or plastic loop things, she spend the journey trying to pull the sleeves down on her too short shirt to cover her hands so she could hold onto something and as a result spend most of the trip lurching all over the place as the bus stopped and started. No one offered her a seat and I expect I wasn’t the only one who was hoping for an emergency stop. Maybe the germs won’t get her but flying headlong through the windscreen on Parramatta road might.
Kris
August 7, 2008 — 1:18 pm
Hahahaha… That last line really cracked me up. 🙂
Anna
August 7, 2008 — 1:23 pm
This is completely not related to the post but referring to what Rachel said – if you must insist on/can’t not holding onto something when on a bus (e.g. if you are near those 3 seater things and there is nothing to hold on to) then bend at least one knee slightly. It helps alot with balance. (My friends and I tried to work out how to ride on a bus without holding on in primary school – still works.)
Nicole
August 7, 2008 — 5:08 pm
id take the germs thanks at least as a commuter if you take care of yourself your immune system tends to bolstered by them. but the bus drivers will always get you.
aim
August 8, 2008 — 3:01 pm
Penn happened to have a little pimple-like mark on the back of his leg once…at his 15-month appointment, I think it was. The doctor noticed it and actually took a biopsy of it right then and there (cut a little bit off and swabbed it) and sent it in to make sure it wasn’t MRSA! I guess they’re seeing it more and more in kids.
Oh, and I’m totally a seat cover person. I don’t know why it happened (maybe it was living in LA!) but it just sort of became habitual. I know it’s soooo not environmentally-friendly, but it just gives me the heebie-jeebies not to. For every 5 people who *do* shower and have good hygiene, there’s one nasty person who doesn’t. I’m not afraid I’m going to “catch” anything, per se…I guess I just don’t want my ass touching something their ass touched. 🙂
Rachel
August 8, 2008 — 5:19 pm
It still sounds like mild hysteria to me, sorry Amy. Even MRSA is relatively restricted and doesn’t usually pop up out of nowhere. Cuts and grazes can become infected but usually only people in cerrtain groups; “athletes, jail and prison detainees, soldiers, Native Alaskans and Native Americans, and children in the inner city” to quote wiki and those with lowered immune systems and open wounds. Why would you doctor be checking Penn for MRSA if he was and had none of the above?
Isn’t action like using loo seat covers a possible factor in lowering natural immunity with makes us more susceptible to things like MRSA, indeed creating things like MRSA by increased use of antibiotics to fight infections for us rather than being able to rely on our own immune system.
I do feel quite strongly about this. Not that I’m force feeding by little one with mud from the garden or making her lick public loo seats. Perhaps I’m just justifying why I haven’t mopped the kitchen floor …