OneGuyFromBarlick

TOO CLEAN? 01

Many years ago Vera and I sat watching a BBC TV programme that was all about the germs, fungi and small creatures which inhabit the surface of our skin and protect us against attack by harmful microbes. We both laughed when we realised that both of us were subconsciously scratching ourselves! I never forgot this programme and over the years made it my business to learn more about these essential matters.
Fast forward thirty years and I am sat having a conversation with a friend of mine, an American GP who worked for the Mayo Clinic, one of the most respected medical bodies in the world. He told me about a mini-epidemic he had come across when he realised he was getting an abnormal number of young men college students coming to his office complaining about dry, itching skin. He eventually realised what was causing it. A soap company was marketing a new brand of germicidal soap and they were concentrating on young men by suggesting that the cleaner you were, the more likely you were to attract the attention of the female sex. Some of them had been showering three times a day using what was in effect a powerful disinfectant. He alerted the patients to the damage they were doing to themselves and the queue of itchy young jocks at his door faded away.
When I was a lad, seventy years ago, we were taught that 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' and encouraged to keep ourselves clean. Despite this, we only had one bath a week, always on Friday night. Time and time again as I interviewed informants to the Lancashire Textile Project I was told the same thing, Friday night was almost the universal bath night. I think that most of you will remember strong soaps like Lifebuoy, Wright's Coal Tar and Carbolic soaps. A good hot scrub with these once a week meant that we were not shunned by our friends!
Despite this of course, we were living in a much more dangerous world than today in terms of contamination in our environment. Apart from the constant pall of smoke from domestic and factory coal burning, the dust we breathed was full of infectious matter ranging from powdered horse muck from the street to the coughing and sneezing of people whose general health was nowhere near as good as it is today. Remember that this was before antibiotics and modern drugs, Tuberculosis, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria and Measles were just a few of the diseases that were endemic. Some of our friends were put in isolation hospitals or even died so we were all aware of the dangers.
'Keeping clean' was seen as the main defence against infection and our mothers constantly washed and scrubbed to try to protect us. When I look back it is a wonder we survived let alone get to the stage where we have been described as 'The last Healthy Generation'. How can this be in a world where everything is far cleaner?



Stanley's Tar Soap

Do you remember the early days of Radox bath salts? I guess it must have been around 1960 but I can't find anything about their history on the Web. There is still a product by that name but it seems to be a liquid whereas I think the original was in the form of crystals. My parents rushed to buy it, as did millions of other folk, influenced by the advertising and the fact that everyone else seemed to be using the product. They persuaded me to try it although I didn't like the smell - and I came out in a terrible itchy rash that took ages to go away. Never again!

I remember Lifebouy soap and Radox bathsalts (blue ?) from the late sixties and early seventies both used by a guy. I heard recently that our sweat only smells because it mixes with the bacteria on our skin, makes you feels icky doesn't it. These days we have the Bacterial Handwash available and at the hospital where I work they have pump containers of it everywhere you look, starting at the front door. The other day whilst there I kept sneezing and must have used it at least 6 times. You are meant to use it on the way out of the building as well.

I have some bath crystals, old bath cubes (imperial leather and other varieties) and some generic coloured bath salts that were bought to sell in nice shaped bottles at a church fair some 35 years ago, these were the left overs. When I stop using the bath for storage might get round to using them(last two properties inhabited had separate showers so the time for the evening soak has been difficult to find. (plus its a stuggle getting out)

You're right Tiz and Cathy, they were crystals. I have an idea that there was a lot of soda in them.

Cathy, we've got bacteria on our skin all the time, they'll be back quick as a flash even after a shower although deodorants will slow them down. But they don't normally do any harm, they just like to share our skin with us! They're our allies and protect us against the nastier bacteria and fungi that otherwise could cause trouble. The healthy bacteria produce chemicals to deter or kill the nasties and it's these chemicals that we can smell. They are simple chemical compounds such as fatty acids that you also find in vinegar, butter, milk etc. When we pickle foods to preserve them we are using a fatty acid, acetic acid in vinegar, just as our healthy skin bacteria do to protect us. So we go about our daily life slightly pickled (even when we haven't been boozing!).

[Added later] I happened to read something later today about bed mites (as one does), the tiny little beings that live in our beds, pillows and clothes and apparently weren't known about until 1965 (I wonder how we coped?). The chairman of the Entomological Society (the people who love insects and their relatives) was pointing out that these mites wouldn't be killed off by washing at the low temperatures that are now recommended for washing machines. He was quoted as saying. "If you wash lousy clothes at that temperature, all you'll get is cleaner mites!".

Quite right Tiz! I've never worried about bed mites or any of the other populations that live with us. After all, the mites are doing a good job eating the bits of us that fall off! Who knows what that would breed if the waste disposal contractors didn't work night and day getting rid of the problem! When I think of all the crap I have been exposed to (and no doubt ingested with my butties!) it makes you wonder how I have survived. Could it be down to my little helpers? The fungi, microbes and animals on my skin and the microbiological climate massaging my immune system and keeping it up to date with possible threats? The one thing we can be certain of is that we get into trouble when we go out of our biosphere and expose the systems to something alien like Ebola. I may be wrong, but I believe this constant search for a sterile environment is equally dangerous. Hence the articles.....

Thanks Tize, no I don't worry too much about what is living on my skin, but I do keep my hands clean. I think we have spoken before on here about all the things we touch when we are out in the world. It's everyone else you have to worry about. Aren't we evolved from bacteria anyway?

Cathy, think how dirty money is.....

Bumped and image restored....

Still a pet subject of mine. We are far better off relying on our natural defences, external and internal, than going for artificial solutions. Look at the fortunes made from things like Listerine....

No wonder Listerene gives you a "zing", it started off life as an industrial floor cleaner!

Bumped again. still a topical subject.