From Angela Birkett
I was deeply alarmed to read of Charles Gerba and his team’s discovery of the terrible danger lurking in dishcloths (This Week, 2 September). Is there someone I could call to have mine trapped and safely removed from the kitchen before it leaps off the drainer, dripping death and destruction?
Seriously, while I appreciate the very real dangers of bacterial contamination in meat, I am more concerned by the apparent drive to sterilise our entire environment. Has anybody checked what is living in most human mouths recently? It’s not nice in there. Should we stock up on a lifetime’s antibacterial mouthwash or should we relax just a little in the knowledge that humans have evolved in an environment richly filled with other organisms, many pathogenic but held for the most part in an exquisitely honed, harmless balance?
We, our immune systems and our unique collections of microbiological hitchhikers are surely designed to be part of that balance. I for one would sooner take my chances with a reasonably often-washed dishcloth than a battery of antibacterial, antifungal, (antihuman?) chemicals. Perhaps this is why we don’t have many people to dinner at our house?
