It occurs to me that this has to be one of the most unsanitary things ever. Yeah I do it, and yeah, I half-heartedly wipe the lip of the can before drinking out of it, but…really? We scrub fruits and vegetables, use sanitizer all day long, but there doesn’t seem to be much concern over WHERE THAT CAN HAS BEEN!
Is it because aluminum doesn’t hold germs or what? Always wondered about the pathology of can germs.
People worry about the wrong things with regard to viruses. It’s not like someone put the can to his mucusy lips and then put it back in the cooler at the 7-Eleven.
However, the soft drinks distributed by San Pellegrino (Aranciata and Limonata) come with a little foil covering to peel off.
I have to admit I almost never wash fruits or veggies. Yeah other people have probably handled them… shrug. I don’t use that hand sanitizer either, I just wash my hands once in a while. I wonder what the shelf life is on common germs and cooties that are exposed to the air.
When I become older and/or infirm, I’ll probably be more careful about such things.
I don’t wash the aluminum can top unless it’s visibly crud-ridden.
My wife cringes when she sees me grab an apple and chomp. Sometimes the sticker is still on it.
She then grabs the remaining apples and scrubs them, telling me that the last apple squeezer might have picked their nose or scratched their backside or something like that.
As the spouse is wont to say, “I have a functioning immune system.” I don’t take unnecessary chances, but I’ve never given a can a second thought. I don’t even wipe them off. I’ve been doing it for years and I’m still here, so I must be okay.
Hell, back in the day we used to have those cans floating around in the ice/water in the cooler with half rotted bait while fishing. Nobody died. Except Carlos, but he was weak and deserved to die.
I wash fruits and veggies, just to get the dirt, wax and pesticides off, I don’t care about germs.
I did know a guy who was a supermarket manager, and he said “I NEVER drink out of a can, because I know what goes on with them in the back of the supermarket.” He didn’t elaborate, but I’m guessing it’s more of a “bring those cases over here, I have to stand on something to reach the lightbulb” issue rather than “let’s pee all over the cans and see if anyone notices”. I hope I’m right.
In college, I bought a sixer of pilsner (in cans) on my way to my GF’s late one night. When I got there, she was sitting on the porch waiting for me, so I plopped down, grabbed a brew, popped it open, and put it to my lips. What I tasted and felt was salty and gritty and hairy and sticky. I looked down, squinting at the can in the moonlight, and saw a gummy yellowish goo covering the top of the can with hair and chunks of crud stuck in it. I screamed like a woman and gargled with scalding hot salt water and Listerine for 10 minutes.
Worst-case scenario, I know, and probably extremely rare to boot. But I don’t drink out of cans anymore because of this. Warehouse/store conditions that lead to those cans being covered in Buddha-knows-what may not always materialize in something so visible on my cans. But the possibility of nasty shit being there still exists. For example, a warehouse worker stands in a puddle of piss in front of a urinal, then goes back into the warehouse, and walks across a pallet of cans with his pee-pee boots. And now I’m gonna put that can on my lips? Nope. I don’t drink out of cans anymore.
Hasn’t anyone noticed how the hospitals are filled to overflowing with sufferers of the dread can-spread plague? Vast swathes of people are sick and dying from drinking from unwashed cans. We all know someone…my father was taken by a can of 7-Up back in Aught-Three.
I mean, it would be different if this weren’t happening. In such a perfect world, we’d be completely justified in continuing to ignore this and in treating it as a complete non-issue. Alas, we can only dream…