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Children from Southern Pa. lobby on Capitol Hill for continued health care

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The party continues: SWB RailRiders clinch IL North title with win over Rochester Red Wings

<p>I can&#8217;t remember when it happened &#8230; but sometime over the last 45 years I moved away from Mom&#8217;s way to another. And now I have to admit she was indeed right &#8230; and that I was seduced away to something dangerous and to be shunned.</p><p>No, not a cult, or smoking, or some weird proclivity &#8230; I&#8217;m talking about switching from a dishcloth to a kitchen sponge.</p><p>It&#8217;s not news that kitchen sponges can harbor bacteria and serve as a vehicle to spread them from place to place and surface to surface around our food preparation and dining areas.</p><p>We&#8217;ve had study after study showing that the moist, warm, nutrient-rich nooks and crannies of a kitchen sponge are <em>perfect</em> places for a massive menagerie of germs to grow. That&#8217;s why the Internet and home economics books are full of advice about how to clean the sponges we all have on our kitchen sinks. Microwaving a sponge for a minute, soaking them in diluted bleach or vinegar, boiling for 5 minutes, throwing them in the dishwasher or clothes washer and dryer &#8230; all now shown to be useless &#8230; or worse.</p><p>On July 19, a group of five intrepid German scientists reported the results of their incredibly detailed genetic analyses of the germs found in 14 kitchen sponges. I dug up the actual paper and was amazed at the sophistication and elegance of the investigation of this most mundane of objects, yet their findings sent shivers up my spine. <em>Yuck!</em><em></p><p>First, there were very few germs in fresh, out-of-the-bag sponges &#8212; so far, so good! But that&#8217;s where the good news ends.</p><p>More than 360 species of bacteria were identified in the used sponges; more than 80 <em>billion</em> individual germs in a space smaller than a marshmallow. The only places on earth that come close to this concentration of bacteria are stool samples and the traps of sewer pipes.</p><p>Now, to be sure, most of these are not awful germs that cause serious human disease, but five of the 10 most common germs identified were of the &#8220;RG 2&#8221; group &#8212; those the EPA says &#8220;may cause disease in humans, animals, plants or fungi but are unlikely to be a serious hazard to laboratory personnel, the community, animals or the environment and; (b) have effective treatment and preventative measures with respect to any infections that they may cause; and (c) present a limited risk of the spread of infection.&#8221;</p><p>Nevertheless, for people with immune systems weakened by medical treatments like chemotherapy, steroids or some immunotherapy agents, or diseases like diabetes, or the very old or very young, even these so-so bugs can be dangerous. And sometimes, really bad germs, like salmonella, shigella and E. coli, often from uncooked meat and eggs or dirty hands were seen in the sponges.</p><p>Even the most aggressive cleaning techniques like those I mentioned above killed only about 60 percent of the bacteria, and seemed to do so in mostly the less worrisome types, leaving behind the bad boys to rapidly fill in the space the killed-off weaklings left.</p><p>So what&#8217;s a person to do?</p><p>First, go throw away the old sponges now. Next, either get a big bag of brand new ones and start a habit of never using one longer than about a week, or go back to Mom&#8217;s way and use dish cloths that you wash and bleach often with aggressive laundry techniques. In addition, even though it might not be the most &#8220;green&#8221; option, using paper towels or germ-killing single use wipes is probably a good idea in a home with anyone at increased risk of infections.</p><p>Does it sometimes amaze you that we survive at all?</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Alfred Casale To Your Health </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_casale-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Alfred Casale To Your Health </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Alfred Casale</p><p>To Your Health</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dr. Alfred Casale, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is Associate Chief Medical Officer for Geisinger Health and Chair of the Geisinger Cardiac Institute. Readers may write to him via ae@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

To your health: Dishcloths better option than bacteria-ridden sponges