1. Comment #84744 by Barbara on November 3, 2007 at 12:16 pm

As a child, after playing outside, I came into the house covered head to toe in who-knows-what. One of the adults present at the time made a comment about germs. To which my grandmother said something akin to "A child needs to swallow at least a cup of dirt before she can grow up" (not all at once, mind you).

This article backs up my opinion that Grandma was a wise woman.

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2. Comment #84750 by Logicel on November 3, 2007 at 12:36 pm

My four siblings and I had a cousin, who unlike the raggle taggle band that we were, was kept in pretty little dresses and her hair in curls. Upon staying the weekend with us, my mom took one look at her and said, take those off and put on these overalls. She then proceeded to crawl all over the nook and crannies of our little domain, properly besmirching herself with soot, goo, and a few minor scraps. When picking our cousin up, our Aunt almost passed out, and she scolded my mom for such irresponsible behavior to which my mom replied, so what, she looks like a bum, but she had the time of her life.

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3. Comment #84751 by stereoroid on November 3, 2007 at 12:36 pm

And you wonder why there's such a rise in childhood asthma cases? I'm still amazed that we're seeing so many kids with severe allergies, such as intolerance of nuts. Have they always been around, but didn't live long enough to tell the tale? Some must have made it, surviving long enough to pass this deficiency on to their children... it's a puzzle. Recessive traits? I know: God did it!

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4. Comment #84754 by Logicel on November 3, 2007 at 12:46 pm

Entire islands and towns built and owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company.
_____

gagorama.

and

we are all essentially made of — you guessed it — great heaping gobs of bacteria, massive hordes of them, all manner of wacky bugs and parasites and wondrous horrible-looking microorganisms all munching happily on the same air and blood and burrito that you do, trillions of toothy things working in some sort of bizarre harmony to keep you alive,...
__

Oh my, don't tell Monk:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Monk

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5. Comment #84770 by Durandal on November 3, 2007 at 1:53 pm

Great article. I'll saute some earthworms with capers in a white wine sauce tonight! Why not?

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6. Comment #84779 by Blondin on November 3, 2007 at 2:35 pm

I remember my dad saying a boy had to eat a PECK of dirt before he became a man. I don't remember how old I was but I was young enough to think he meant it literally and old enough to ask somebody how much was in a peck. I did not relish the prospect. I actually remember wondering who was going to keep track of the dirt-eaten-to-date tally and whether you could beat the system by just claiming to have eaten a whole peck of dirt.

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7. Comment #84782 by Kakashi_monkey on November 3, 2007 at 2:47 pm

I took a theater class long ago, and the students and teachers were sharing stories of the grossest things they ever ate. One of the teachers said that once, when the they were young, they ate entire handfuls of dirt! Beats a single earthworm.

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8. Comment #84783 by bluebird on November 3, 2007 at 2:49 pm

Durandal, sounds like a dish Andrew Zimmer would relish!

This article is right on; a few years ago Madison Ave. flooded the market with 'antibacterial soap'; now it's replaced with good 'ole regular soap.

Humans are part and parcel of the natural world; it's vital we not live on the periphery of nature.

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9. Comment #84787 by Goldy on November 3, 2007 at 3:21 pm

The 5 second rule applies in my household. Wife is a bit horrified but getting used to it - her mother is mortified. But our floors are kept clean and a bit of dirt never hurt anyone.
Just have to wait and see if this is going to work with my daughter :-)

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10. Comment #84801 by mandrellian on November 3, 2007 at 4:47 pm

This backs up the uncomfortable gut feeling, as it were, that I get whenever I see these mind-bogglingly paranoid commercials for anti-bacterial wipes/sprays/underpants. I'm not exactly old, but when I was a little kid (1980s) there were perhaps two places you'd use disinfectant - on an open wound or to clean the toilet. Seriously, what the hell happened to soap and water? Our species survived the sodding Black Plague & cholera & smallpox without sterlisiing the living crap out of our homes but I guess people have forgotten that. I can't actually recall the last time I heard of a child getting sick from playing on the floor or chewing a building block. People have to start giving their kids' immune systems (and their own) more credit.

You don't have to keep your home as clean as a hospital - your home isn't full of sick people recovering from surgery or chemo or other immune-depressing conditions, it's full of healthy people with pretty damn good immune responses. When you sterilise, you kill everything including the benign bacteria that help balance out the badguys - but a lot of the time you're clearing the way, via artificial selection, for the badguys to bounce back without any competition to keep them honest! No wonder my germophobic friends (one dropped a piece of pizza base-down on his kitchen table and threw it out) get sicker than me and I'm the most domestically lazy person I know.

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11. Comment #84828 by ridelo on November 3, 2007 at 7:01 pm

At the other side of the spectrum: I visited an elderly person in a geriatric clinic. They had a few cases of the 'hospital bacterium' there and they allowed young children (babies!) to come there with their parents.
The nurses were wearing masks when they attended the affected rooms but they said that healthy people shouldn't be afraid of contamination.
Am I a germophobic when I disapprove of this behavior?

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12. Comment #84832 by steveroot on November 3, 2007 at 9:02 pm

11. Comment #84828 by ridelo on November 3, 2007 at 7:01 pm
At the other side of the spectrum: I visited an elderly person in a geriatric clinic. They had a few cases of the 'hospital bacterium' there and they allowed young children (babies!) to come there with their parents.
The nurses were wearing masks when they attended the affected rooms but they said that healthy people shouldn't be afraid of contamination.
Am I a germophobic when I disapprove of this behavior?

Maybe not completely. Assuming the "hospital bacterium" you refer to is MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), there is justified concern in exposure of very young individuals to this organism. See the Mayo clinic site:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735/DSECTION=1

Here's what they say about the risks of catching it "out and about":

These are the main risk factors for community-acquired (CA) MRSA:

* Young age. CA-MRSA can be particularly dangerous in children. Often entering the body through a cut or scrape, MRSA can quickly cause a wide spread infection. Children may be susceptible because their immune systems aren't fully developed or they don't yet have antibodies to common germs. Children and young adults are also much more likely to develop dangerous forms of pneumonia than older people are.
* Participating in contact sports. CA-MRSA has crept into both amateur and professional sports teams. The bacteria spread easily through cuts and abrasions and skin-to-skin contact.
* Sharing towels or athletic equipment. Although few outbreaks have been reported in public gyms, CA-MRSA has spread among athletes sharing razors, towels, uniforms or equipment.
* Having a weakened immune system. People with weakened immune systems, including those living with HIV/AIDS, are more likely to have severe CA-MRSA infections.
* Living in crowded or unsanitary conditions. Outbreaks of CA-MRSA have occurred in military training camps and in American and European prisons.
* Association with health care workers. People who are in close contact with health care workers are at increased risk of serious staph infections.
Steve

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13. Comment #84850 by Big T on November 4, 2007 at 12:37 am

We are all part of an immense ecosystem. It is probably better to let bacteria into one's body than to endlessly scrub one's surroundings, take antibiotics needlessly, etc. I would personally rather have a healthy immune system and plenty of rest and good nutrition than a medicine cabinet full of antibiotics. Live in harmony with nature and don't worry about germs!

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14. Comment #84854 by LDmiller on November 4, 2007 at 12:57 am

Virtually all of the commenters here have forgotten that the life expectancy of people in the ancient world through the Middle Ages was on the order of 25 to 30 years. They had no knowledge of "germ theory" and most perished from bacterial infections.

In 1900 the average life expectancy in the US was about 45 years. Anything involving surgery or sepsis carried a very high death rate. For example, a ruptured appendix was often fatal.

Hygiene, vaccinations and antibiotics added 30 years to man's brief span.

Countries that do not have these things still have very short life spans.

Yet this crowd here crows about being a grotty bunch!

Slow learners...

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15. Comment #84858 by Planeten Paultje on November 4, 2007 at 1:13 am

I can remember when the slogan "Kills 99% of all household germs!" was released. There must be whole hordes of people who have been brainwashed (is that a pun?) with this bacteria scare. And for many it has become a religious thing; If you don't disinfect your surroundings, you're bad and bad things will happen to you and the ones you love. Don't listen to those who say otherwise; they are wrong and will be eaten alive by germs. People have become addicted to disinfectants like many are to nicotine. Ultimately it's all just a way for companies to consolidate their profits.........

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16. Comment #84860 by Planeten Paultje on November 4, 2007 at 1:33 am

@14. Yes, abysmal hygene kills a lot of people. However, the piont here is that the balance between hygene and building and maintaining our immune systems has been moving to another extreme, one that may very well result in a significant rise of earlier-than-necessary deaths.

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17. Comment #84866 by ridelo on November 4, 2007 at 1:05 am

Comment #84832 by steveroot on November 3, 2007 at 9:02 pm

Thanks, Steve!

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18. Comment #84870 by Wonderer on November 4, 2007 at 1:42 am

I wholeheartedly subscribe to the idea that a little bit of dirt does you no harm. When we were kids and lived on a farm we were dirty from head to toe all day (well it seemed like that anyway).
My wife is a nurse and finds that the problems with MRSA, caused by the injudicious use of antibiotics, is a massive problem.
Live naturally in a way that we were meant to.


BTW this is my first post so hi to one and all.

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19. Comment #84871 by Logicel on November 4, 2007 at 1:43 am

Welcome, Wonderer!

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20. Comment #84877 by Philip1978 on November 4, 2007 at 2:13 am

I love this article! :)

mandrellian, I totally agree with you, I cant stand those stupid lets become Howard Hughes adverts either.

It reminds me of one of my uni housemates, she cleaned and anti- bacterialised everything and funnily enough she was the one who used to suffer more colds etc Where as those of us who, not being slobs or anything but allowed for a certain amount of bacteria to be introduced stayed the more healthy. I would make a good bet she was never allowed to go play in the mud as a kid whereas I was given free reign to go get as mucky as possible! :)

Hello Wanderer, good to have you here!

Philip

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21. Comment #84885 by Kris Verburgh on November 4, 2007 at 3:08 am

Brilliantly written article. It makes you think and it tackles very cunningly and ingeniously the issue of fear for the unknown, nature and even life, an upcoming anxiety that is inexorably taking over our lives and our way of thinking.

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22. Comment #84909 by bluebird on November 4, 2007 at 7:08 am

Per staph infections, this has been making U.S. news recently:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/us/17school-cnd.html

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23. Comment #84933 by HappyPrimate on November 4, 2007 at 9:34 am

As one who if it were not for antibiotics, would not be writing this today I can say that you really do not want to push the line too far with bacteria exposure. After being hospitalized with chills and fever at age 45 (10 years ago) and told I had a micro-organism infecting my blood which was about to take my life, I began to wear garden gloves while working in the dirt. Were it not for a cocktail of antibotics over a four day period going directly into my blood to help my own body kill off the invader, I would have died like so many hundreds of thousands did before antibotics were discovered. There again, while I wear my gloves in the garden, I am not a disinfectant freak in the house. Still - soap and water cleanliness is only a fairly recent idea if you think about it. None of my great grandparents had indoor plumbing. Mine was the first generation in my family to be born at a hospital. I can remember when polio was a REAL threat to children here in the U.S. and knew kids who got it. Germs have caused me great fear and I respect their killing power but I realize we cannot ever avoid them totally or should we.

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24. Comment #85092 by LDmiller on November 5, 2007 at 12:39 am

Many children and mothers died of puerperal fever:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerperal_fever

That is bacterial, with numerous causes.

But adults died of tuberculosis (there was an epidemic of that in the 30's and 40's) and other bacterial diseases-- malaria, etc.

I also recently recovered from a condition (ruptured appendix) that most certainly would have killed me without antibiotics and sterile surgical techniques (3 surgeries).

Americans have always had a bit more of a cleanliness thing, compared to other countries (Sweden may be an exception). No question about that. A trip to any public lavatory in Britain forcefully brings that home. Phew!

If you want to learn about Your Friends, the Micro-organisms, just take a course in microbiology. You will wash your hands much more often afterwards.

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25. Comment #85098 by Philip1978 on November 5, 2007 at 1:19 am

LDmiller

I am an ex student, who on occasion have had to subject myself of using public lavatories in English pubs etc The combination of these two things means that there is a greater chance that I cannot be killed by conventional weapons. (I haven't reached the Keith Richards levels of being completely indestructible, I can't believe he still lives and I have no intentions of ever copying his antics!)

Suffice to say, I think there is a good chance I will be partying with the cockroaches come Armageddon! :)

Philip

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26. Comment #85107 by BT Murtagh on November 5, 2007 at 2:02 am

mandrellian quoth:

Our species survived the sodding Black Plague & cholera & smallpox without sterlisiing the living crap out of our homes but I guess people have forgotten that.

Well, yeah, the species survived, but I doubt that that was a whole lot of comfort to the millions of individuals who died purulent, stinking, painfully nasty deaths.

I'm as big a fan of natural selection as anybody, but you can take this big picture stuff a little too far, I think.

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27. Comment #85120 by Barbara on November 5, 2007 at 3:10 am

BT Murtagh wrote:

Well, yeah, the species survived, but I doubt that that was a whole lot of comfort to the millions of individuals who died purulent, stinking, painfully nasty deaths.

I'm as big a fan of natural selection as anybody, but you can take this big picture stuff a little too far, I think.

True. However, I don't think anyone here is suggesting we should become lax in basic hygiene and keeping a clean home. It just isn't necessary to be such sticklers about it that we wind up creating bigger problems for ourselves than the ones we want to prevent. Soap and water cleans sufficiently in most cases. The stronger disinfectant and anti-bacterial stuff should be used only when absolutely necessary.

The article imparts a message I've heard before. We must allow our children to be exposed to a certain amount of the nasties in this world so their immune systems can develop a natural ability to fight them.

Send the children outside to play and hose 'em down when they come back. Oh, and don't forget to check their pockets for frogs, lizards, and other surprises.

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28. Comment #85158 by Alter_GX on November 5, 2007 at 6:58 am

My family doctor use to say "kids should eat a pound of dirt and a pound of bugs a day" there's was truth in that.

Plus George has the same idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_dpQfHmAWU

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