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Protecting yourself

 This is Serious! This incident happened recently in North Texas.
A woman went boating one Sunday taking with her some cans of coke which she put into the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken to the hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit. She died on Wednesday. The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to the can of coke she drank from, not using a glass. Tests showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis. Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of all soda cans before drinking out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned. A study at NYCU showed that the tops of all soda cans are more contaminated than public toilets (i.e.).. full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident.

 

FORT LAUDERDALE: Swimmers should shower before and after taking a dip in the ocean. That's the advice of a University of Miami microbiologist, who found that 37 percent of swimmers at a South Florida beach emerged dripping water with staph in it. Three percent was the dangerous drug-resistant staph, MRSA.Dr. Lisa Plano presented her study at a science conference on Friday. She said it appeared the staph washed off other swimmers.

Source MSNBC

 

Grocery store shopping cart handles have more germs than public restrooms, making them one of the worst public places for germs, according to researchers. The only surfaces that had more germs were playground equipment and bus rails.  "Every kid in America teethes on shopping cart handles," said Dr. Chuck Gerba at the University of Arizona. "They don't have the best sanitary habits. … I mean, you're putting your broccoli where their butt was."  Some supermarkets already offer wipes, but if yours does not, germ experts say the smartest thing to do is wash your hands and your child's hands after you leave.

 

The Top 10 Germiest Public Places, Along with testing the samples for the presence of urine, protein (which is a general indicator of hygiene) and fecal matter, the researchers measured levels of three biochemical markers that could contain illness-causing substances. These included: Hemoglobin: Indicates the presence of blood, Alpha-amylase: Indicates the presence of mucus, saliva and/or urine, Urea: Indicates the presence of urine. Out of all the samples, the places that carried the most germs were children's playgrounds. A full 44 percent of playground surfaces tested positive for bodily fluids. Playgrounds are not the only public places that call for a good hand-washing after using them. Following are the top 10 germiest places the researchers found (germs are able to survive on these surfaces anywhere from just a few hours to a few weeks). The following is a list of the 10 highest areas of germs that include Playgrounds, Bus rails/armrests, Public bathrooms, Shopping cart handles, Escalator handrails, Chair armrests, Vending machine buttons, Shared pens, Public telephones and Elevator buttons.

 

RESTAURANT TABLETOPS

Every year in the US, there are about 76 million cases of food-borne gastroenteritis, with symptoms ranging from mild diarrhea to serious liver or kidney disease. Many of these cases originate in the home, but restaurants also can be bacterial hot spots. When we swabbed restaurant tabletops, we found that 70% were contaminated with coliform (fecal) bacteria, such as E. coli, organisms that are commonly found on meats as well as on vegetables and in water and soil. In the same study, we found that the bacterial load on tabletops was 45 times greater after the tables were wiped. Reason: The damp cloths used in restaurants are supposed to be sanitized between uses, but this usually is not done. The cloths tend to stay damp for long periods, which encourage bacterial growth. More than 89% of restaurant dishcloths were contaminated -- and the bacterial level on bar dishcloths was even higher.

KITCHEN SINKS

We tested 14 surfaces in each of 15 homes. Result: The kitchen sink, including the faucet handles, had the highest bacterial load. There’s more bacteria in the average kitchen sink than in the average toilet.

LIQUID HAND SOAPS

The refillable soap containers in public restrooms often are contaminated with fecal bacteria. The antimicrobial preservatives used in liquid soaps can break down, allowing harmful organisms to proliferate. Soap is dispensed through the small hole on the bottom and rarely are the knobs on the dispensers cleaned. A single “pull” can dispense millions of bacteria.

 

Don’t get a lemon. A total of 25 different types of germs were found on 53 out of the 76 lemons that were sampled in restaurant drinks from water to mixed drinks. Some were fecal in origin (either from dirty fingertips of the restaurant employees, or from meat-contaminated cutting boards and knives), while others were types commonly found in saliva, on the skin and in the environment. Lemons are not typically washed if they do its just rinsed with water (no germ killing capabilities). One sample had six different microorganisms on it, three of which are found in fecal material.  Although some lemon slices had germs either only on the rind or only on the pulp, 29 percent had germs on both sites. In 15 instances the germs on the pulp were completely different from those on the rind, indicating that the pulp had been in contact with a contaminated surface as or after it was sliced. Sometimes when more than one lemon was sampled during a single restaurant visit, different germs were found on each.

 

 

 

Baycon Special Projects Unit has compiled the following articles. We believe these biohazard articles will benefit everyone that reads them.

SPECIAL PROJECTS UNIT

NEW HAMPSHIRE CRIME AND TRAUMA SCENE CLEANUP

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