Bacterial Zoo: Latex Gloves And Balance
Latex or nitrile gloves are mainstays in our fight against the spread of infection and in our promotion of wellness throughout medicine. Their use ranges from the simplest procedures in a wellness checkup to the complexities of the operating room. We have come to rely on the reassuring sound of a glove snapping into place on a health worker’s hands before an exam, giving us confidence that both the health worker’s and the patient’s exposure risks are being reduced.
Our civilization and its science has long abandoned disease and germ theories that evolved from the early blaming of evil spirits to the later public health notions about vapors and bad drains. But now that we have an understanding of the life of microorganisms and can witness them multiplying under the microscope’s lens, there is a temptation to swing too far in the other direction in the name of prevention.
Of course, it is only natural that one’s scalp should crawl when viewing the rapid colonization of certain bacteria under the microscope’s magnification. It can be like watching an alien invasion, an idea that has not been overlooked or undercapitalized upon by household cleaning product marketers. Antibacterial compounds are present in everyday products on supermarket shelves, from dish soap to floor cleansers, touting promises of a better, healthier home. Latex gloves and protective masks are found on grocery store end caps and clinicians daily write prescriptions for the “pink stuff”, simple antibiotics, for sniffley noses.
The scientific world is now sounding alarms that we are creating worse monsters by not being balanced in our approach to bacterial life. The rise in a number of autoimmune disorders may actually be exacerbated by our fixation with over-cleanliness. The hygiene hypothesis, as this line of thought is called, suggests that our immune systems get out of whack if we are not exposed to a proper amount of bacteria and microscopic critters. In an interesting response, more parents are consciously encouraging their kids to play in the dirt to enhance their health. (Read more about this in the January 27, 2009 edition of www.nytimes.com.)
Perhaps it is advisable to know what really exists on a clean and healthy person’s skin as they go about a normal day. At www.science.tv, there is a brief but insightful video called “Our Skin is a Zoo. Viewing it may help some of us loosen up on our phobias and become more accepting of certain facts. On the other hand, it does make for some challenging viewing.
The video’s sound bite, “at any given time there are as many bacteria on our skin as there are people on the earth”, is something we should learn to be comfortable with. If after watching this, we can learn to let a quick case of the heebie-jeebies pass over us and then be obsessed no further than regular bathing with ordinary and not antibacterial soap, we will be the stronger for it.
Jen Long is currently Director of Web Content for an online store that specialzes in great discounts for Synthetic Gloves, where she runs a web library to educate those struggling with gloves. All are encouraged to visit Latex Gloves Library.