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Bad Manners and Brimstone
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#Post#: 19111--------------------------------------------------
Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: Aleko
Date: November 16, 2018, 7:49 am
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While reading Writer of Wrongs' tribulations with the crazy
Lysol ladies,
HTML https://badmanners.createaforum.com/the-work-day/it's-really-not-funny-when-i-can't-breathe/,<br
/>I was gloomily certain that even if you could sit them down in
front of the mass of evidence that over-use of all these
chemicals*, and indeed excessive hygiene in general, is directly
and seriously bad for their and their children's health, and get
them to agree that the case was proven, they still would not
stop doing it. Because the things that people routinely do to
'stay safe' aren't just safety measures - they are magical
rituals, like not walking on the cracks in the pavement, and
omitting them creates fear. Even if Amy knows that Lysol is
dangerous, she'll feel the need for 'just a little spray'.
Other dangerous things that it seems impossible to stop people
doing to 'be safe' are:
Washing raw chicken. I actually had no idea that this was even a
thing until I read in the newspaper one morning that the Food
Standards Agency had launched a public information campaign to
convince people to stop doing it, as not only is it quite
pointless (unless there is obvious surface dirt on your bird)
but actively dangerous, as you will almost certainly splash
campylobacter bacteria around your kitchen. I went into my
office and said 'Why would anyone do that anyway?' and was
startled to find that two of my colleagues said they always did.
I was even more startled when they - both intelligent women -
said that they would go on doing it, however dangerous the FSA
and the NHS said it was, because they 'just wouldn't feel right'
if they didn't.
Closing your curtains when you go away. Here in Britain many
people are utterly convinced that this is a good safety
precaution, 'because then burglars can't see that there's nobody
there'. This is of course totally illogical, because if the
curtains are open and there's nobody visible in the ground floor
front room, there could perfectly well be people in the back of
the house or upstairs; whereas a house with all its curtains
drawn all day is clearly unoccupied. Police and insurance
companies have been trying for years to convince people not to
draw the curtains when they go on holiday, but to no avail. (My
MIL's front room curtains tended to hang with an inch or so gap
in the middle - so she used to pin them together all the way
down to keep them closed when the family went on holiday - thus
making clear at a glance even from the other side of the street
that No. 27 was empty and likely to be so all week. ::))
Has anyone come across other dangerous 'safety' rituals?
*I wonder sometimes why people rant so much about Big Pharma,
and give the manufacturers of household chemical products such a
relatively easier ride. When the manufacturers of such products
first added antibacterials such as triclosan to domestic soaps
and shampoos they didn't know about their health and ecological
harms; but they certainly knew beforehand that these extra
chemicals added nothing at all to their effectiveness, and that
the health benefit heavily implied in slogans like 'Now with
Added Anti-Bacterial Power!!!' just didn't exist.
#Post#: 19116--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: STiG
Date: November 16, 2018, 8:59 am
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Unless you have immunocompromised people in the household, one
of the worst things you can do is use antibacterial hand soap.
It strips off your natural bacterial defenses and leaves you
more vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Same with hand
sanitizer. I'll use it when I can't wash my hands and I'll use
it going in and out of hospitals or medical offices but
otherwise, I don't use it.
I use plain old liquid soap at home, without the antibacterial
properties. Soap helps to loosen and lift the dirt on your
hands, which is where the majority of the bacteria will be
located and works just fine to clean your hands.
#Post#: 19120--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: Pattycake
Date: November 16, 2018, 9:38 am
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I was very happy when I learned that not rinsing the chicken was
a good thing, because I really dislike handling raw chicken! The
less time I have to have it in my bare hands, the better. I
really like chicken, just not raw in my hands.
I have never understood people's need to antibacterialize (is
that even a word? LOL! But you know what I mean, right?)
everything. Advertising agencies sure know how to sell things, I
guess. I do use some of the products, but not to excess. Usually
just the once in a while deep cleaning that a bathroom needs.
#Post#: 19124--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: Mrs Rat
Date: November 16, 2018, 11:09 am
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We have a mouse and use hand sanitizer after handling him.
Yesterday our two pregnant rats had 17 babies between them, we
check them and change the paper once a day using hand sanitizer
before touching them as we want to keep their bald little bodies
as clean as possible. These, and of course places who ask for it
to be used, like my dad's rest home, are the only time we
sanitize.
#Post#: 19125--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: Hmmm
Date: November 16, 2018, 11:17 am
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I can understand why people rinse their poultry. Julia Childs
insisted it be rinsed. Old cookbooks I have indicate to rinse
chicken.
#Post#: 19126--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: RubyCat
Date: November 16, 2018, 11:30 am
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--- Quote from: Hmmm link ---
>
> I can understand why people rinse their poultry. Julia Childs
insisted it be rinsed. Old cookbooks I have indicate to rinse
chicken.
>
--- End Quote ---
Unless I am using boneless chicken or it's super clean looking,
I rinse the meat juices off of it. Come Thanksgiving, I know
I'll be rinsing the turkey because it always seems to have ice
crystals in the cavity. I'm super careful not to splash and am
always cleaning the counters and sink with either an
alcohol-based cleaner or bleach (I prefer bleach but it's not
good for the granite counters and dh hates the smell of it).
I know poultry is more problematic when it comes to really bad
bacteria, and I can't remember anyone rinsing anything but
poultry or fish, but I'm really careful about cleaning surfaces
after preparing any raw meat product.
#Post#: 19129--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: RubyCat
Date: November 16, 2018, 11:35 am
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I just remembered one...
A man my father used to work with would dose his kids with
Robitussin all winter long and insisted that it kept them from
catching colds. Nobody could convince him that it was not a
good idea.
#Post#: 19131--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: syfygeek
Date: November 16, 2018, 11:52 am
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I rinse my chicken- take it out of the package it's been sitting
in, run it under the faucet, and that's it. It helps me "unfold"
any pieces that are squished up from being packaged.
When people are saying they wash their chicken do they do more
than a quick rinse?
#Post#: 19133--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: Aleko
Date: November 16, 2018, 12:11 pm
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--- Quote ---
> I can understand why people rinse their poultry. Julia Childs
insisted it be rinsed. Old cookbooks I have indicate to rinse
chicken.
--- End Quote ---
When I first encountered the concept, I wondered if it was a
holdover from the days when your chicken might have been killed,
plucked and gutted in your (or someone's else's) farmyard: the
innards might have left some gunk behind in the cavity and there
might be bits of blood and straw sticking to the outside. Of
course you'd need to rinse or at least wipe that off. In this
video where Childs shows how to roast a chicken,
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynqfyxr1Rxs,
at about 7½ minutes
in she says that she likes to wash her chicken because "I just
feel it's a safer thing to do", although in states that have
USDA inspections "every chicken is fine". Exactly what she
reckoned she was washing off is unclear, but given that she
thought that USDA inspections would pick up whatever it was, it
must have been some visible gunk of that kind; certainly not
bacteria!
I see that Childs wrote this in Mastering the Art of French
Cookery, so she certainly didn't get the idea from rustic French
peasants:
--- Quote ---
> WASHING AND DRYING
>
> If you wash the chicken, though the French do not wash theirs,
as they feel it destroys flavor and hastens spoilage - do so
rapidly under cold, running water. Dry it thoroughly inside and
out. It will not brown if it is damp.
--- End Quote ---
I have several mid-20th-century British cookery books, none of
which suggests washing chicken at all unless you have just
gutted it yourself, in which case logically they advise rinsing
and drying the cavity - but only the cavity, not the outside of
the bird. And that's the only context in which I would ever
rinse chicken, or any other meat. If I see blood or water, on
the surface I would just wipe it off with kitchen paper. Even
leaving the danger of campylobacter aside, pouring water on raw
meat just isn't good for the flavour or texture, as the French
knew.
#Post#: 19149--------------------------------------------------
Re: Doing dangerous things to stay "safe"
DIR By: peony
Date: November 16, 2018, 3:09 pm
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I rinse my chicken but I am careful not to splash, and
afterwards I go over my sink with soap and hot water. I disagree
with telling people not to rinse at all. Why not just tell
people to be careful of splashing and clean their sink after?
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