Have you ever wondered what type of goo might be on, or growing on, a shopping cart?
It's pretty easy to imagine some pretty funky stuff - considering carts carry food items that may be contaminated - like chicken parts or ground meat, with juices that may escape the packaging, making a good culture for growing bacteria.
Besides the food, the carts carry kid's with - runny noses, maybe a little drool dripping off their chins, in diapers maybe leaking a little fecal material.
Carts are well handled by people who may have any type of disease known to man, provided that disease allows them to still be ambulatory, (we'll eliminate the scooter powered carts for the sake of simplicity.)
And last but not least people are using carts who may not have access to, or are adverse to using, soap and water.
Overall you might guess that a shopping cart is one of the most bacteria/virus laden surfaces we come into contact with. You would be right.
I've noticed the big grocery stores where I live have disinfectant wipes near the carts now. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to wipe my hands off after I touched the carts or if they want me to clean the carts for them. Makes me wonder how hard it could be to have a little shopping cart cleaning station - manned by grocery store employees (never mind that would cost money...why pay someone when they can get me to clean the cart?)
It's probably not a big issue if your immune system isn't compromised. On the other hand there are some bacteria/viruses that you probably don't want to test your immune system against more often than necessary - for example Methicillian Resistant Staph A or MRSA infections are becoming more common outside of hospitals/nursing homes.
If you have a break in your skin, already have a cold/flu or some more serious disease that compromises your immune system, or you are in the very young or very old category, it probably pays to think about how to keep from picking up too much gunk on your food, and hands - and certainly for all of us - washing our hands often.
Your call of course. We probably don't want to become bubble-boys and girls, or Monk-like (the TV show Monk) with OCD germ phobias.
I sometimes think George Carlin has it right when he claims swimming in dirty polluted water as a kid made his immune system stronger. There's some evidence, in rats at least, that living in an overly-sanitized environment leads to various allergies and auto-immune disorders. The comments on the CBC article on Slashdot are interesting.
It may be obvious but there's an important distinction between a surface or object that looks clean, or looks dirty, - and what can make you sick. An object can look dirty, but not be contaminated with anything that would be harmful to your health - a muddy apple for example, or an earthworm (for you young kids out there who are inclined to eat those critters). On the other hand a surface can look clean, for example your cutting board after you cut up a chicken - or some non-sanitized area in a hospital, but be teeming with bad germs.
My thought is that you probably stand a better chance of harming your health by worrying, stressing out, and thinking you are going to get sick - than by contacting icky stuff on a shopping cart or anywhere else. I think about nurses, school teachers, and other folks who are in constant contact with germs - but remain amazingly healthy. Knowing some basic rules about hand washing and keeping a positive attitude, work wonders.
I ran across the following quotes while "researching" the Five-second rule on Wikipedia -
* O que não mata, engorda (Brazil: "if it doesn't kill you, it's fattening").
* Lo que no mata, engorda (Spanish-speaking countries: "if it doesn't kill you, it's fattening").
* Chancho limpio nunca engorda (Spanish speaking countries: ("A clean pig never gets fat").
* Dreck macht Speck (Southern Germany: A double-meaning, "Dirt makes bacon" or "Dirt makes fat").
* Dreck reinigt den Magen (Germany: 'Dirt cleans the stomach').
* Was Dich nicht tötet, härtet Dich ab (Germany: "if it doesn't kill you, it makes you tougher").
* Lite skit rensar magen (Swedish: 'Some dirt cleans the stomach').
* Zand schuurt de maag (Dutch: "Sand cleans the stomach").
* 大菌吃小菌 (Chinese: "Big germs (people) eat small germs").
* You'll eat a peck of dirt before you die
* Зараза к заразе не пристанет or Zaraza k zaraze ne pristanet (Russian: "dirt won't do any harm to a dirty one").
* Man skal have syv pund skidt om året (Denmark: "You need seven pounds of dirt a year").
