she is right!

at least in europe we agree with the scientific community, that anti-bacterial houses/flats with babies lets the babies (later) get allergies, asthma, skin diseases, stuff like that :p

These were some pretty entertaining comments. I’d like to second those who urge people NOT to use “anti-bacterial” products. They give you a false sense of security.

If you have skeeve issues, a proven antiseptic that will NOT result in superbugs is isopropyl alcohol. You can get alcohol wipes at the office-supply store. Carry a couple in your pocket or handbag or briefcase and wipe anything that seems icky. Alcohol (as I understand it) kills “germs” by dehydrating them due to its rapid evaporation … it sucks the water out of them.

If you’re immune-compromised, you can also find bleach wipes, which will kill anything up to and including HIV. Just let the surface dry after wiping, before use.

Otherwise, though, revel in our dirt!

Our mouths have many types of beneficial bacteria. Yes, some of them aren’t so great, but if it wasn’t for the beneficial bacteria, the “bad” ones would overmultiply and make us sick!

The best defense is a good offense – not of cleaners, but of competitive “good” bacteria. Same goes for your skin – if you’re scrubbing all your skin every single day, you’re removing the good bacteria that help compete out the stuff that makes you sick!

The door handles and soap dispensers are why you should wash your hands for at least 15 seconds in hot, soapy water (NOT under the running tap), dry with paper towels, and use a paper towel to open the door on your way out.

As for the cell phone thing, you could wash after use (yet another reason not to use it in the car!), or just make sure you wash your hands between cell use and touching food or your face.

Personally, I found this article pretty enjoyable to read.. even though people here have claimed it’s “least useful” and not part of clutter. It’s not, but at least it’s something nice to know about. Thank you for sharing!

Bacteria are not clutter.

Most of them are harmless or even beneficial; if you got rid of all the bacteria in/on your body, you would regret it.

If you have prior experience, point taken about the link love. Besides, like I said, they get plenty of trackbacks from sites with (hopefully) people who don’t take the language so seriously. I don’t exactly understand your methodology, though; googling the article or going to Cracked and searching for it through hundreds of similarly-crass articles (a much faster process than your newspaper citation example) is almost as easy as clicking the link. You’re making it slightly, slightly harder and therefore weeding out those with the most passing curiosity, but other than that, people will probably reach it anyway. The only way to really stem the effect would be to not mention the site at all, but that would be even less link love, so you’re between a rock and a hard spot.

Those who’d like to declutter their browser of distracting profanity could do like I did and install the anti-profanity Greasemonkey filter (http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4175) or other such addon. Once you do that, the Cracked articles are pretty alright.

I actually had a neighbor who, before and after using a grocery store cart, would wash her hands with antibacterial soap. She had gone through a month-long, debilitating gastro virus, which her doctor said was most-likely contracted from that kind of surface. I could understand her paranoia.