Contaminated trays

[red750]

Item on tonight's news that the luggage trays you place your hand luggage in, to go through the airport check-in security scanners, carry more germs than a toilet.

 

 

[old man emu]

Have you ever tried to get a toilet bowl through a security scanner?

 

 

[DenisPC9]

Have you ever tried to get a toilet bowl through a security scanner?

There was never no scanning here:

 

It's True! A toilet was used as an aerial bomb during the Vietnam War

 

 

[ClintonB]

Was at Sydney airport yesterday, I looked at the trays rather differently and noticed how filthy they were. Now I’m paranoid.

 

 

[DenisPC9]

Was at Sydney airport yesterday, I looked at the trays rather differently and noticed how filthy they were. Now I’m paranoid.

Don't be too paranoid. If that were the case, you wouldn't touch door handles, escalator hand rails, that you are strongly warned that if you don't keep hold of, the earth will stop rotating on its axis.......blah blah blah.

 

Take it all with a more than a grain of salt. Just about everything outside your house, and if you have toddlers within your 4 walls its much the same, is equally as "contaminated". Us humans aren't built to operate in a sterile environment. If we were, we would all be on the Moon.

 

 

[old man emu]

This germ paranoia is fed by the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Lever & Kitchen just to sell disinfectants.

 

Until these companies started to push "germ-free" we seemed to be able to handle the bacteria, moulds and fungi that had existed with us for millennia. It's true that there were a few bad eggs amongst the general microbial population, but when was the last time typhoid, dysentery-causing Shigella and Campylobacter ran riot on your kitchen benches?

 

I reckon that a whole lot of allergies our grandkids suffer from are due to over-cleanliness, and dumb mums.

 

 

[red750]

Kids used to eat dirt to build immunity to these things.

 

 

[facthunter]

Plenty died before becoming adults too. . Nev

 

 

[aro]

Pretty much everything has more bacteria than a toilet, because toilets tend to have a lot of bacteria killing products used on them. Bacteria are everywhere.

 

Interestingly, the old statement that there are 10 times more bacteria than human cells in our bodies seems to be incorrect - it seems more likely to be about the same number of bacterial and human cells.

 

 

[DenisPC9]

Plenty died before becoming adults too. . Nev

But not from eating dirt. According to more recent medical research those who don't eat dirt are more likely to suffer various and many ailments throughout their lives.

 

And I do the like ads "Kills 99.9% of germs". Which leaves a vacuum to be rapidly recolonised by other "germs", some virulent, some beneficial.

 

 

[facthunter]

Yes ,kill off weeds to get really bad weeds instead, replacing them.. Repeated use of the same antibacterial substances produces Bugs with high resistance to the one used. You need GOOD bugs to displace the bad guys.. they say asthma and some auto-immune diseases are more prevalent when you try to kill all the germs and moulds and achieve a sterile environment... Could well be. Nev

 

 

[onetrack]

I've had a severe dose of gastroenteritis from rat faeces contaminating cooking utensils in our fortified field compound in 'Nam. It's not something I ever want to experience again.

 

I spent 4 days in hospital there, and I can tell you, you had to be seriously ill to be sent to hospital in 'Nam. The rats used to walk over us at night, when we were in our beds. They'd wake you up.

 

How many of you have taken notice of how many people using the public toilet with you, walk out without washing their hands? My personal observation is, it's around 1/3rd of the toilet users.

 

There's some real grubs out there. Then you get to shake hands with them, right after they've come out of the toilet without a hand wash?

 

I can believe the level of contamination in the luggage trays - and I'll wager that the drop-down eating trays in commercial aircraft are little better, now that aircraft cleaning is little more than 2 mins of sweeping up the litter on the aircraft floor during the high-speed turnaround.

 

I take disinfectant wet wipes with me now when I fly as pax, and ensure the armrests, trays and all control buttons are wiped down.

 

I don't get anywhere near as sick, after flying as pax, as I used to. Getting the 'flu after a flight was a common occurrence, before I started using the wipes.

 

 

[old man emu]

I often wonder what sort of illegal immigerms arrive in Australia on and in sealed packaging from Asia. Should we wear rubber gloves and a face mask when opening our latest 'bought it on eBay?

 

 

[onetrack]

If you knew what went on in many food preparation kitchens in restaurants and cafes, you'd never eat out again.

 

I am constantly amazed at the number of people handling raw food with bare hands (particularly salads), when all food preparation health rules state that disposable gloves must be used.

 

These people are often handling filthy banknotes continuously, then handle your raw food with their bare hands, straight after handling the notes.

 

One of the things I do like about many of the newer eateries, is the open kitchen design where you can actually see what the cooking staff are doing.

 

There are dozens of eateries every week getting punished every week for blatant and serious infractions of health laws related to food handling.

 

Check out your local Health Depts food-handling "Hall of Shame", for the records - just for the ones they've caught.

 

There are many many more operators who never get caught, because of inadequate Health Dept staff and inadequate checking rates.

 

I personally believe there has been a greater decline in food-handling standards since Asians entered the food-processing chain in bigger numbers than previously.

 

I think there's something like 13,000 reported cases of food poisoning annually in Australia - but that's only reported cases, where someone has presented for medical assistance with food poisoning.

 

The Health Depts reckon that figure is only the tip of the iceberg, because tens of thousands more people, who suffer from a bout of food poisoning, just put up with the projectile diarrhoea and associated symptoms, and just swear off the dodgy eatery where they reckon they picked it up, without reporting it to authorities.

 

We bought a new Italian dishwasher a couple of years ago, it still contained about 10 litres of testing water - and the cabinet and many of the internal parts showed prominent evidence of the greasy handprints and fingerprints of the assemblers.

 

No doubt the evidence of the salami and mortadella and cheeses they ate for lunch, with the same unwashed bare hands with which they assembled the dishwasher.

 

The manufacturer is a reputable brand with good customer service and communication, and they wanted our feedback - so we let them know about the water and greasy marks. One would hope they tightened up their assembly procedures.

 

The advantage with the dishwasher was that we could run it with a dose of caustic dishwasher tablets, with 70°C water, so it got the cleanup it needed.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Mr FV & I live simply and don't use products that kill everything. The next generation does and constantly have the "sniffles", feeling crook etc. Father & son worked at the same place for 18 years; dad retired with nearly all his sick leave unused (paid out at end of work, so no incentive to use or lose) and son had used all his and some. Not conclusive proof considering the different work ethic between the generations, but observation of how sick they are in a sterile environment. They don't fly - so maybe that's it!

 

I did a Uni course on Soils - amazing how many billions of bacteria live in a teaspoon of soil, yet we are quite happy to eat food that grew in it, ate it or sat on it.

 

 

[facthunter]

Without soil micro organisms many minerals are not available to the plant. A large % of our mass is bacteria. We wouldn't live long without them. After an antibiotics course you are in a bit of strife with your intestinal flora. being depleted. Nev