My list of ‘do not touch’ items
Here we go again. A year ago I wrote about germs being everywhere and one reader responded that I’d “creeped him out.” Good. I think that piece is worthy of repeating since coronavirus has emerged and is spreading. I think nobody actually knows how many Americans have it. It will bloom in one place, then another and first thing you know someone you personally know will have it.
I upset a fast-food worker when she handed me a cup by gripping the rim. I refused it and asked for another. Oh, the pain.
Anything you touch in a public place has been touched thousands of times before.
A New York Post article reported that ATM screens are the dirtiest things in New York; dirtier than poles in the subway cars and handles on public toilets.
The next time I passed an ATM I looked it over. I doubt it has ever been cleaned.
The website WebMD had a list of nasty places, the first being a surprise, bathroom hand-dryers.
They explained that as toilets flush they create a mist of water and other stuff in the room. The warmed air that passes through a hand dryer just circulates the air in the bathroom.
Consider this: Restaurant menus have one hundred times more bacteria than a toilet seat.
They say you should make a selection, order it, go wash your hands and dry them with a paper towel. And, don’t touch the menu again. While washing your hands did you touch the soap dispenser?
Lemon wedges contained harmful bacteria such as e.coli. While you are squirting catsup from the red plastic container onto your fries, ask the server when it was last sanitized.
The list includes the television remote, bedside lamp buttons, light switches, bed spreads and telephones in hotel rooms.
I use a pen or knuckle to push elevator buttons and never use a public water fountain.
It is wise to use the cleaning wipes from the dispenser beside the grocery carts because the handles are never sanitized. I have seen kids gnawing on a cart handle.
Add to this everything in gyms and public rooms and everything in a children’s playground.
The “Prevention” website includes vending machines, all hand rails and everything on a bus.
This list includes airplane seats, arm rests, tray tables and the whole lavatory.
I take my own pen to the doctor’s office. The pen chained to the counter for signing in has already been used by all the sick people who arrived before you.
Remember that whatever you touch during the day, you bring into your car and home.
The germs you picked up by touching ordinary things today, you transferred to your cell phone and steering wheel.
Here are more “do not touch” items: gas pump keyboards and handles, debit/credit card key pads, public doors, computer keyboards everything you touch that someone else might have touched.
Create a “just in case” quarantine plan in your house to include paper plates and disposable service items.
Sanitize home and office surfaces with moonshine, pure grain alcohol or 190-proof vodka in a spray bottle. They all are good sanitizers and you never know when someone at work will up and quit and you’ll want a party.
Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@ hotmail.com.