# Cleanliness **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505 "2024-01-02T17:39:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/101 "2024-01-04T01:01:16Z")
I just crack mine on the clean side. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/102 "2024-01-04T01:06:17Z")
little more can be expected of that user name. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/103 "2024-01-04T01:10:43Z")
You can buy 5000 doses of poultry vaccine for $41. The birds are supposed to get two doses. > **[Megan Vac1 Salmonella Vaccine for Chickens LAHI - Vaccines | Poultry | Farm](https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=fbe23ac3-eb68-48db-ab25-d274a6130a81)** > > Fast Shipping. Great Low Price. Megan Vac1 is recommended as an aid in the reduction of Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella enteritidis, and Salmonella heidelberg colonization of the internal organs of young growing chickens and as an aid in the... It’s criminal that the US doesn’t vaccinate chicken against salmonella. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/104 "2024-01-04T01:14:41Z")
Well. Yeah. You’re right. I kinda do have a thing about stuff that is nasty. It’s a personal failing. I’m working on it. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/105 "2024-01-04T01:52:15Z")
Nasty is a completely subjective classification. That’s all I’m trying to get across. Ew, yuck, gross does not equal risk to health. It seems to me that if the two coincide it is more coincidence than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/106 "2024-01-04T01:55:51Z")
Like I said, way up thread, I’m not willing to be a test subject to find out if someone’s germs on a toilet seat will invade and make me sick. Maybe someone will agree to test it. My guess is no one will. Because of the squick factor. Alone. The yoyos who nasty up public facilities outta clean up their nastiness so it doesn’t have to be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/107 "2024-01-04T02:25:59Z")
The OP is correct that being too obsessed with cleanliness can be counterproductive. To the contrary, having some level of “dirt” can be good for you. As an example, babies with pets tends to have less allergies and are healthier than other babies. The exposure to pet dander and microbes is _good_ for you. > **[Study: Why Dogs and Cats Make Babies Healthier | TIME.com](https://healthland.time.com/2012/07/09/study-why-dogs-and-cats-make-babies-healthier/)** > > What do dogs or cats have to do with your baby's risk of catching a cold? According to the latest research, they may help lower his or her risk of coughs and sniffles during the first year of life. But it’s _really_ important that you have clean drinking water. > [@](#): > > In the 1840s the three presidents elected in United States were William Henry Harrison, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor; two of the three died in office and the third was sickened in office and died three months later. President Harrison, nicknamed “Old Tippecanoe,” took office in 1841 and died just 31 days into his presidency; this is the shortest length of office for any U.S. president. Officially, President Harrison died of pneumonia, and President Polk and President Taylor both died both of gastrointestinal issues. > > New forensic research shows all three deaths could be link to the White House water supply in the 1840s and early 1850s… > > As it turns out, there was no wastewater collection system back then in Washington, D.C. The common method of disposal in the area was an old sewerage dump. This dump was a ground depression opening used to get rid of waste, which was upstream of the natural flow of the groundwater to the White House’s source water. This sewerage dump was used by locals and the government to dump nightly waste, an early process for disposing of wastewater. Never a good thing to be downstream of that! > **[The 1840s: Not a Good Time for White House Water - Florida Water and...](https://www.fwpcoa.org/content.aspx?page_id=2507&club_id=859275&item_id=1252&pst=7966)** > > The first water system for the City of Washington, near the White House, was created in 1802 at a natural spring. In 1808 a well was sunk at the spring site ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/108 "2024-01-04T02:58:56Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I’m not willing to be a test subject to find out if someone’s germs on a toilet seat will invade and make me sick. > > Maybe someone will agree to test it. > > My guess is no one will. Millions and millions of people, probably billions, have at some point in their lives sat down on a public toilet seat without sanitizing it first. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > The yoyos who nasty up public facilities outta clean up their nastiness so it doesn’t have to be an issue. This is true. But not because they’re making people sick; just because yuck. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/109 "2024-01-04T09:18:39Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > But neither eggs nor chickens have poop on them, normally. Part of this is down to welfare standards relating to available space, access to outdoors, and the bedding/flooring material in the indoor space ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/110 "2024-01-04T09:26:39Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Millions and millions of people, probably billions, have at some point in their lives sat down on a public toilet seat without sanitizing it first. I would not even be slightly surprised if the bacterial load on soft seating such as fabric covered foam seats on buses, trains, in cinemas and restaurants and waiting rooms, is typically higher than on public toilet seats. Sure, you’re clothed when you sit on them, but clothing is porous and bacteria are small. Hard surfaces can be wiped down. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/111 "2024-01-04T10:24:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Part of this is down to welfare standards relating to available space, access to outdoors, and the bedding/flooring material in the indoor space This is quite true. When I was a child I kept animals without benefit of money or knowledge and though I did my very best, most sickened and died because of my lack of ability to keep them right. I promised myself that I would never keep any animal for which I could not provide optimal care. This promise I’ve kept, and my hens have spacious clean safe quarters. Which frankly few chickens do, whether battery hens or home flocks. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/112 "2024-01-04T12:00:17Z")
It occurs to me that I’ve gone hunting for eggs in a hen house. And it wasn’t an unpleasant or stinky activity. Granted, it was a tourist place. The sort of place that keeps hens so your kid can look for eggs and they can cook up the eggs your kid found and serve them to your kid. So the economics favor a spacious and airy hen house. Some of the eggs have a spot of poop on them, and most don’t. You can smell that there are chickens there, but it’s not unpleasant. Even more impressive, you can walk over to the pig sty and watch the sow nurse her piglets, and THAT doesn’t stink, either. I have no idea how they manage it. Every other experience I’ve had with pigs has involved unpleasant proximity to pig shit. (They sell excellent pork, lamb, and kid by the way. Sadly, they lost access to anyone capable of doing FDA-approved chicken slaughter, and can no longer sell chicken meat.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/113 "2024-01-04T12:34:30Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > 5 days of a towel hanging in a bathroom? Damp. Toilet plume floating around? > Visitor _borrowing_ it to dry their infected hands? And you dry your genitals that night, with grotty disgusting towel? > Nope. > > “Go wash those towels, now! Use bleach!” signed: your Mom Heh. I’m your opposite here. My bathroom (which “visitors” never use, we have a 3rd guest bathroom) is in our finished basement. A dehumidifier runs 24/7 so it is arid down there. I have two bath towels that I rotate between daily. After my quick showers I drip-dry 3-4 minutes, then towel dry. The towel is bone-dry in an hour. I do _my_ laundry weekly, but do my towels every other week. My gf does her towels more frequently. And bleach? We do not use it for laundry, it is bad for our septic. If we have laundry so foul that bleach is necessary, I take the items to a laundromat. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > I don’t wash my hens’ eggs unless there is poop on them Any of our eggs that are soiled go into the dog-egg carton. I crack them on their clean side. I’ve never washed an egg. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/114 "2024-01-04T14:06:40Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > My ex says he only uses 4 squares. Ummmm. > I use a lot more. I recall a discussion on Reddit along those lines, where one person said “pat at few times with 4 squares?? You can’t get peanut butter out of a shag carpet by patting.” > [@enipla](#): > > BUT… I haven’t had your regular seasonal cold in the last 3 years. The people at work that go into work and especially that have kids are sick all the time. True. During quarantine, I managed to avoid my annual cold and sore throat. However, I also noted that when I started taking multi-vitamins, many years before, I had gone from 4 or 5 in a winter to 1. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > Sure, although not as bad as pigs. Pigs are the worst except for humans. But neither eggs nor chickens have poop on them, normally. They do not smell bad. As China’s standard of living increases, the people want to eat more meat. I saw an article on a 11-storey hi-rise pig farm under construction. I wonder what it’s like in that neighbourhood? > [@Moriarty](#): > > To the contrary, having some level of “dirt” can be good for you. As an example, babies with pets tends to have less allergies and are healthier than other babies. The exposure to pet dander and microbes is _good_ for you. There was the thing going around in various articles about 20 years ago, that excessive hygiene and helicopter parents wiping down anything before their baby touched it - was the reason for excessive numbers of asthma and allergies - that a young child’s immune system needs the regular challenges to dfevelop. Without such “challenges” the immune system starts to attack more everyday things instead. As one of my co-workers described it, many years ago - “With the first kid, you vacuum and wipe the floor before they crawl on it. By the third kid… they drop their soother, you pick it up and pop it in your mouth to lick off the dust bunnies, then stick it in their mouth.” Maybe part of the problem is almost nobody has 3 or more kids today. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/115 "2024-01-04T14:19:08Z")
Some years ago, I went to see George Carlin’s stand-up act and he did the routine about how he doesn’t wash his hands when he uses the bathroom, unless he shits on them. Afterward, I was in the ladies room, standing at the sinks with everyone else washing hands. I was tempted to make a comment, but didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/116 "2024-01-04T15:25:20Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > > > My ex says he only uses 4 squares. Ummmm. > > I use a lot more. > > I recall a discussion on Reddit along those lines, where one person said “pat at few times with 4 squares?? You can’t get peanut butter out of a shag carpet by patting.” OTOH, if you don’t have shag carpeting and you poop firm chunks like nearly dry modeling clay … ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/117 "2024-01-04T15:30:34Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > that excessive hygiene and helicopter parents wiping down anything before their baby touched it - was the reason for excessive numbers of asthma and allergies - that a young child’s immune system needs the regular challenges to dfevelop. Without such “challenges” the immune system starts to attack more everyday things instead. Nut allergies are a prime example. Best to expose your kids to them early so they don’t develop a problem ingesting them later. > **[Peanut Allergy: Early Exposure Is Key to Prevention](https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure-is-key-to-prevention/amp/)** > > With peanut allergy on the rise in the United States, you’ve probably heard parents strategizing about ways to keep their kids from developing this potentially dangerous condition. But is it actual… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/118 "2024-01-04T16:10:58Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > There was the thing going around in various articles about 20 years ago, that excessive hygiene and helicopter parents wiping down anything before their baby touched it - was the reason for excessive numbers of asthma and allergies - that a young child’s immune system needs the regular challenges to dfevelop. Anecdotally, a few years back, I suddenly started getting nasty hangnails and infections if I happened to scratch the skin on my hand on a twig or a thorn or whatever. I had to go and get prescribed antibiotics a couple of times when it was really bad. I didn’t know why It was happening, until it abruptly stopped when the bottle of ‘microban’ washing up liquid (dishwashing soap) I had casually bought ran out and I replaced it with just regular fairy liquid. I’m fairly sure the antimicrobial stuff was depleting the natural skin flora and leaving no competition for pathogens when they arrived after the antimicrobial chemicals had worn off. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/119 "2024-01-04T17:05:00Z")
The hygiene hypothesis for allergies and autoimmune conditions has come under criticism recently and people have been saying that it has been disproven or discredited. I don’t know if this is correct or if it’s just misinformation. The hypothesis itself seems very reasonable - your body produces naive lymphocytes - cells that are looking for trouble on the assumption that there _will be some trouble to look for._ Their job is to recognise new pathogens and trigger immune responses to them. If there is a shortage of pathogens for them to act on, they don’t stop being produced or stop being busy, so it does seem completely plausible that they might recognise things that are not the enemy and target those. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505/120 "2024-01-04T17:16:47Z")
Does anyone have shag wall to wall any more anyway? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleanliness/995505.md?page=7)