Bacteria sick shower head! - Page 11

>> Roger Shoaf wrote:
>>>> Also with news "That some of these bacteria can 'resist' the
>>>> administration of household bleach!". Oh what a calamity! Cos I
>>>> occasionally bleach counter-tops and other areas and put wooden
>>>> cutting boards etc. into the dishwasher at high temps, immediately
>>>> after use!
>>> On cutting boards you can forget about the dish washer. For one thing
> you
>>> can kill the wood and for another you are lucky you have wood cutting
> boards
>>> as the wood tends to kill off the pathogens due to the mechanical
>>> difficulties of the woods surface.
>>> All you need to do is to use soap or detergent to break the fats or oils
> on
>>> the surface and rinse really well, then dry. Surprisingly the plastic
>>> cutting boards are the problem as the bugs thrive in the depths of the
>>> little slices making them virtually imposable to kill.
>> The FDA outlawed wood because it couldn't be run through a washer.
>> Scientists who may have been partial to wood found that if they made
>> cuts on a wooden board and cleaned it with a sponge and dishwashing
>> liquid, they couldn't find bacteria on the surface. Bacteria below the
>> surface were found days later, though.
>> If they cut on dry boards, swelling would have trapped the bacteria that
>> didn't wash off. With the old, wet boards I've used, the results might
>> not have been so good.
>> Some cut on counters or plates, not boards. Statistically, people with
>> wooden boards have half the risk of food poisoning, and those with
>> plastic or glass have twice the risk. Glass? Glass doesn't have slices
>> to trap bacteria, does it?
>> Statistically, washing a cutting board between uses does not affect a
>> person's risk of food poisoning. Whatever board you use, washing should
>> get rid of most of the bacteria. If it doesn't reduce the risk of
>> food poisoning, it sounds as if cutting boards are not a significant
> danger.
>> The risk is 23 times higher for people who undercook chicken. I think
>> that's why glass is statistically more dangerous than wood. A person
>> who undercooks chicken sounds careless. Isn't a careless person likely
>> to choose whatever board looks easiest to care for? That would be
>> plastic or glass.
>
> Here is a copy of the article from the UC Davis PhD:
> http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infcuttingboard.html
>
>

> At the end, the article mentions the statistical research I mentioned.
> Those statistics indicate that people who regularly clean their cutting
> boards after cutting meat are more likely to contract sporadic
> salmonellosis.

> cutting boards are more likely to contract the sickness lead me to
> believe the relationship with cutting boards is not cause and effect.
> Perhaps people who don't methodically clean their cutting boards are
> more likely to cook only what they can eat in one sitting, and that
> makes food poisoning less likely.

>
> And that plastic boards may be making folks sick:
>
> "...we regard it as the best epidemiological evidence available to date that
> wooden cutting boards are not a hazard to human health, but plastic cutting
> boards may be."
>
>

>> At the end, the article mentions the statistical research I mentioned.
>> Those statistics indicate that people who regularly clean their cutting
>> boards after cutting meat are more likely to contract sporadic
>> salmonellosis.
>
> "...It revealed that those using wooden cutting boards in their home
> kitchens were less than half as likely as average to contract salmonellosis
> (odds ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.22-0.81), those using synthetic
> (plastic or glass) cutting boards were about twice as likely as average to
> contract salmonellosis (O.R. 1.99, C.I. 1.03-3.85); and the effect of
> cleaning the board regularly after preparing meat on it was not
> statistically significant (O.R. 1.20, C.I. 0.54-2.68).
>
> I think you are reading this wrong. I read that the folks using wood boards
> are half as likely to have contacted the disease

>
>
> That and the statistical finding that people with glass
>> cutting boards are more likely to contract the sickness lead me to
>> believe the relationship with cutting boards is not cause and effect.
>> Perhaps people who don't methodically clean their cutting boards are
>> more likely to cook only what they can eat in one sitting, and that
>> makes food poisoning less likely.
>
> Here I think you are attempting to get the data to support your assumptions.

>
> If I understand the statistical study, they looked at folks that had
> contacted food poisoning and then went looking for a cause. I read that
> they suspect plastic and glass boards are the culprits more often than the
> wood boards.

>
> The study by UC Davis concludes that wood boards are safe to use:
>
> "We believe, on the basis of our published and to-be-published research,
> that food can be prepared safely on wooden cutting surfaces and that plastic
> cutting surfaces present some disadvantages that had been overlooked until
> we found them. "
>
> And that plastic boards may be making folks sick:
>
> "...we regard it as the best epidemiological evidence available to date that
> wooden cutting boards are not a hazard to human health, but plastic cutting
> boards may be."
>
>

> Every week or so there is something 'in the news' that's unhealthy or
> causes a risk to one's well-being! These items sometimes even get 15
> seconds of coverage on some TV news spot! Musta been a slow news
> night?
>
> These 'studies' or findings are often presaged by such wording as 'A
> recent study of 56,000 suburban families finds that ....... yada,
> yada, .... "!
>
> This week; it's bacteria contaminated shower heads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Also with news "That some of these bacteria can 'resist' the
> administration of household bleach!". Oh what a calamity! Cos I
> occasionally bleach counter-tops and other areas and put wooden
> cutting boards etc. into the dishwasher at high temps, immediately
> after use!
>
> But; not being paranoid or anything I unscrewed our shower head a few
> minutes ago to NOT find any goopy green or black gelatinous mess of
> creepy crawly bacteria (finding only one or two minute black stones at
> the inlet). Perched it on the spout of the water kettle and boiled
> steam (212 deg F) through it for two minutes (hoping the shower
> insides haven't melted!).
>
> Incidentally we are currently under a municipal 'Boil water' advisory
> because a pipe broke at the local pumping and chlorination site. (Oh;
> btw there's another substance, chlorine, that apparently was/is the
> cause of asthma in many children ............... maybe that will be
> next week's concern?
>
> So reckon we are safe; eh? Now I have to clean the kettle!
>
> Cheers