# Okay, this germophobe thing has gone too far **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 19, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693 "2010-02-19T21:44:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/61 "2010-02-24T05:16:45Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I don’t know what I’d do if a guy dumped me for sitting on toilet seats. Laugh, I guess. This. And then pat myself on the back for having dodged a bullet. ---
**Author:** ![Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nefarious_chipmunk/32/1045_2.png) [@Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefarious_Chipmunk)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/62 "2010-02-24T05:46:12Z")
Eh, not to sound like people who don’t vaccinate their children, but I figure everyone else is being so sanitary these days, I can let my guard down. Don’t get me wrong, I wash my hands everytime I use the restroom and clean anything new to me, but I don’t stress too much about public toilet seats (other then if they are wet). I think that Lysol is scamming people because their adds make it seem like the spray kills germs instantly, when most spray/wipes I have seen required at least a couple of minutes to take effect. It is all their in the fine print on the packaging. Same is true off wiping down shopping carts, etc. Look at the wipes. Often, if you are touching it immediately, or it dries too quickly, it is not working to the full effect. My best defense against germs is my body. It can handle it and I rarely get sick. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/63 "2010-02-24T10:33:53Z")
> [@otternell](#): > > My grandmother had a little plaque hung up in her bathroom, and when I was about 5-6 I left a little mess. > > “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie.” > > there are quite a few people who could learn from my grandma.. If they were wiping up what they left .. it probably wouldn’t make me so stabbity… i suppose they do it because someone told them public bathrooms are disgusting, but i sit down, and SOMETIMES get wet, and while i knw i’m not going to get anything, i just … stabby. And some public bathrooms are disgusting, but some are cleaned twice a day if not more often, and how many people clean their OWN bathroom twice a day? ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/64 "2010-02-24T11:19:44Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I can’t stand them either. When hand sanitizers become a regular part of our office supply warehouse, then it’s gotten too far. Employers should not indulge their employees on their paranoid fears. I work with a women who uses her elbow to open doors. She constantly wipes down her keyboard with sanitizing wipes. She has a whole bottle of sanitizer within arm’s length and she uses it probably half a dozen times a day. But hasn’t absenteeism caused by gastroenteritis significantly fallen down in the process ? ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/65 "2010-02-24T11:49:25Z")
> [@Khaki\_Campbell](#): > > But hasn’t absenteeism caused by gastroenteritis significantly fallen down in the process ? The real reason absenteeism due to gastroenteritis has fallen significantly is because of the reduction of employee potluck lunches. ---
**Author:** ![Dumbguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dumbguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumbguy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/66 "2010-02-24T11:58:10Z")
People obsess about toilets and doorknobs and shopping cart handles, but I’ve yet to meet a germaphobe who was afraid of money. ---
**Author:** ![Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nefarious_chipmunk/32/1045_2.png) [@Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefarious_Chipmunk)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/67 "2010-02-24T17:03:32Z")
> [@Dumbguy](#): > > People obsess about toilets and doorknobs and shopping cart handles, but I’ve yet to meet a germaphobe who was afraid of money. I am not a germaphobe, but I know a few and everyone of them is terrified of money. They use sanitizing hand gel after touching it. In a microbiology class I took, we had to find environmental samples off common items. I was a slacker and forgot, so last minute I pulled a $5 bill I had just received as change out of my wallet and used that. The results were just mind-bottling… ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/68 "2010-02-24T20:45:42Z")
> [@anya\_marie](#): > > … > > And some public bathrooms are disgusting, but some are cleaned twice a day if not more often, and how many people clean their OWN bathroom twice a day? I lived in dorms for two years in college. The 1st year, I lived in a communal-bathroom dorm, the kind where you schlep down the hallway with a bucketful of shampoo and body scrub and whatnot. The 2nd year, I lived in a suite, where my roommate and I shared a bathroom with another room (2 other girls). I bitched and moaned at an appropriate level that 1st year, thought things were going to be So Much Better once I didn’t have to go all the way down the damn hallway in my wet flip-flops, not realizing the relative bliss that comes with twice-daily janitorial services. Those suite bathrooms … they clean 'em during Christmas and summer breaks. That’s it. I know which bathroom I’d use for a last-minute microbiology project! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/69 "2010-02-24T22:24:56Z")
> [@Dumbguy](#): > > People obsess about toilets and doorknobs and shopping cart handles, but I’ve yet to meet a germaphobe who was afraid of money. I know people who \*only \*write cheques or use credit/debit cards to avoid ever handling cash. I’m not there yet, but the first thing I do wehn I get home from shopping is wash my hands. Money is gross. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/70 "2010-02-24T22:36:34Z")
When you’re thinking, “What’s the germiest thing in here?”, ask yourself, "What’s the one thing most often touched by the most people? In an office, some people carefully disinfect their own desk and keyboard, that _nobody else_ touches, but they don’t think twice about using the copier, that everybody touches. In a supermarket, the one thing everybody touches is the shopping cart handle (as **'Mika** said, the baby seat could be dicey, too.) Consider the credit card swipe thingy, as well. As I said, I was a janitor. In a restroom the door handle is definitely the filthiest thing in there, and chances are good that the janitor never thinks to clean it on his way out. I asked my colleagues, and I’ve watched janitors in stores, malls, and restaurants. I know this is true. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/71 "2010-02-25T18:19:16Z")
> [@anya\_marie](#): > > If they were wiping up what they left .. it probably wouldn’t make me so stabbity… i suppose they do it because someone told them public bathrooms are disgusting, but i sit down, and SOMETIMES get wet, and while i knw i’m not going to get anything, i just … stabby. Do you not look before you sit? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/72 "2010-02-25T18:29:12Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Do you not look before you sit? :dubious: If the lighting is crappy in the stall, it can be hard to tell. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693/73 "2010-02-25T19:16:54Z")
A recent Adam Corrola podcast talked a little about kids and germs. Adam pointed will share a cake that a dozen kids blew and spit on to put out candles. If you had those same kids blowing on a pan of lasagna you’d never eat a single byte of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-this-germophobe-thing-has-gone-too-far/529693.md?page=3)