Spit limit

Respiratory droplets are considered the most dangerous bodily fluid these days as it is the main transmission mode for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For many city officials though, other bodily fluids voluntarily released from the body may also harbor the virus and therefore threaten public health. Thus, city legislators had come up with anti-spitting ordinances.

Under such ordinance of Manila, Mandaue, Muntinlupa

and Zamboanga, anyone’s spit, mucus, saliva, phlegm or other substances from the mouth and nose should stay where they are until they may be expelled properly.

Releasing it on city streets, alleys, sidewalks, parks, grocery stores, markets and terminals, among others, would send the spitter to jail and cost him to cough up as much as P5,000 in fines.

So far, locals are observing the spit limits. But how about a spit that carelessly or intentionally ends up somewhere else outside one’s mouth or nose?

In Florida, USA, a man told a boy wearing a mask inside a pub to remove it. The man then offered to shake hands with the boy. When the boy refused, the man held his arm and spat at him. The spitter identified as Jason Copenhaver, 47, of Redington Shores, then told the boy he now had coronavirus.

The incident at Ricky T’s near the beach in southwestern Pinellas County happened on Sunday. A staff of the pub intervened, held Copenhaver to the ground and called the police. The spitter was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and simple battery. According to a report, Copenhaver did not have a COVID-19 test and it was not known if his victim got infected with the virus.

Still, there are worst places where a spit should be in.

Twenty-five-year-old Dunkin’ Donuts employee Vincent J. Sessler found this out on the night of 30 July when he left a thick glob of saliva on top of the black coffee that a Chicago police officer ordered.

The cop found the coffee too hot to drink so he opened the cup’s lid to cool it down. Upon seeing the floating mucus on his coffee, he arrested Sessler and booked him for Disorderly Conduct and Battery to a Peace Officer.

The charges may not be bad enough for Sessler. But he soon found out the worst consequence of his reprehensible act when his employer terminated him.