Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: dish sterilization

[Racheli Gai (racheli]

What Rob said.

In addition, I wonder: Is there a way of sterilizing (assuming people feel
that have to do it) with something other than chlorine? Less
damaging to the planet (and better for humans, too)... ?
[Green Peace used to have lots of information regarding the devastating
effects of chlorine, in case anyone is interested].

Slight digression (??) : I'm seeing in our CH all these anti bacterial
soaps, anti-bacterial everything.  It doesn't seem to be the case that
people understand that killing bacteria indiscriminately is not a good
thing, and that it could encourage the growth of organisms which are more
resistent, and more dangerous.  
I would also think that people who are so afraid of bacteria would stop
eating food (meat etc.) which might have traces of antibiotic substances
in it, but it's often the case that people think that if they "nuke" the
dishes, and the counters (and the floors and who knows what else), they
are "safe".
R.




>I can tell you from 14 years of experience that our level of illness as a
>community is no greater or less than the average home, and we certainly
>do NOT sterilize our dishes with bleach, lock them up for safe keeping,
>etc. The dishes get run through the dish washer, using a non-bleach dish
>soap, and then stacked on a counter. Clean Dishes are not a very good
>vector for viral-bacterial infection, the surfaces dry out too fast.
>Sponges on the other hand are bacteria farms, the moist interiors breed
>bacteria at amazing rates and we don't use them.

>The recent thread of dish sterilization, with references to EBola, SARS
>is an example of how groups can get all worked up over somebodies
>unreasonable fears, and make decisions based on unrealistic worse case
>scenarios. Food particles grow bacteria. Diseases like the common cold,
>SARS, etc come from virus'. According to our health Department food
>specialist, Silverware is the primary vector of dish bacteria, especially
>forks, which can have food particles trapped between the tines. Any
>decent  dishwashing  removes the food, thus the bacteria has nothing to
>eat and grow on.

>Living in a community, you have more access to viral agents from close
>associating with more people, and kids are good vectors for spreading
>virus' around since they are less conscious of it. If you live in fear of
>virus', you should probably not live in a community. If you are seriously
>immune deficient, living in a community with lots of kids is probably a
>bad idea. At Sharingwood, when people are sick they are encouraged to not
>come to community dinner and meals are brought to them, but the kids
>still play with each other and trade colds, etc.

>I would not waste a lot of community energy on keeping the dishes sterile
>beyond normal standards. You would be better off spending that energy
>teaching your kids about how colds and flu germs get spread.

>Rob Sandelin
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racheli [at] sonoracohousing.com (Racheli Gai)
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