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In the USA, we are unlikely to be exposed to parasites from our food. Unless clothing or bedding has been exposed to a known parasite --- head lice for example --- hot water is not needed. You do not need to disinfect your clothes washer.
I DO disinfect our laundry. My kids play contact sports (football, wrestling, etc.) With wrestling in particular, there's a real risk of passing around infectious diseases. Ringworm is annoying and might take you out of competition and practice for awhile, but an antibiotic resistant staph infection can be very dangerous. Schools around here have had them. The rule our teams have for meets is a hot shower with antibacterial soap after wrestling, and dirty uniforms go home in a bag to be laundered in hot water. I don't want to turn my washer temp up to be hot enough to kill the bacteria, so I add lysol concentrate to the load.
I DO disinfect our laundry. My kids play contact sports (football, wrestling, etc.) With wrestling in particular, there's a real risk of passing around infectious diseases. Ringworm is annoying and might take you out of competition and practice for awhile, but an antibiotic resistant staph infection can be very dangerous. Schools around here have had them. The rule our teams have for meets is a hot shower with antibacterial soap after wrestling, and dirty uniforms go home in a bag to be laundered in hot water. I don't want to turn my washer temp up to be hot enough to kill the bacteria, so I add lysol concentrate to the load.
I wa referring to parasites. I agree that those who play contact sports need to be careful, especially of MRSA. And I was replying in the context of dirty kitchen towels.
I wa referring to parasites. I agree that those who play contact sports need to be careful, especially of MRSA. And I was replying in the context of dirty kitchen towels.
I know . I wasn't responding to you so much as to the people who won't put kitchen towels in with the rest of the laundry for fear of some type of contamination. If you kill the bacteria, there's no reason to segregate anything. The germs are dead. It doesn't get any cleaner than that.
Part of the problem on this hygiene v. frugality thing is the fault of the green technology. My front loading washer uses about a half gallon of water [exaggeration/] to wash the laundry. This has been done despite the fact that 290 gallons of water for every man, woman and child in the USA goes by my office every day and down to the Gulf of Mexico to mix with salt water.
So, this little water saving miracle does not get the clothes very clean compared with the top loading old technology monster that used to be down in the basement. So, instead of ending up with a pubic hair on a kitchen towel, I separate all wash.
Hmmm...did not read all the responses, but somehow we are now talking about parasites, washing machines and wasting water, LOL.
Anyway, paper towels are super expensive. We still use them - of course! - but I cut down on the expense of them by creating a new rule that we use a cloth to dry our hands after washing dishes or washing our hand. So, clean hands get dried using this cloth. If you just want to wipe your hands - say, in the middle of cleaning a chicken - then you still use paper towels. And paper towels are still used for cleaning. But just using the cloth for hand-drying has cut down on our usage a great deal!
I use too many paper towels, but I am getting better. For example, I use one with windex to clean the bathroom mirrors. However, instead of throwing it away, I put the crumpled towel on top of the bottle and use it next time. By that time it dries out and is perfectly good to use again.
You can use newspaper to clean glass very effectively. Everybody gets shoppers delivered in the mail and I find most of them just the same as junk mail but the black and white with NO color print cleans mirrors, windows and car windows inside and out.
Hmmm...did not read all the responses, but somehow we are now talking about parasites, washing machines and wasting water, LOL.
Anyway, paper towels are super expensive. We still use them - of course! - but I cut down on the expense of them by creating a new rule that we use a cloth to dry our hands after washing dishes or washing our hand. So, clean hands get dried using this cloth. If you just want to wipe your hands - say, in the middle of cleaning a chicken - then you still use paper towels. And paper towels are still used for cleaning. But just using the cloth for hand-drying has cut down on our usage a great deal!
The topic contrasted paper towels with the use of dishrags. And, the majority of the posts in the entire thread deal with this subject.
Your idea of wiping dirty hands with a paper towel to remove poultry bacteria is humorous. Do you think that would help? You do know that bacteria is microscopic, and only removed by vigorous washing with soap and water, right?
Last edited by Wilson513; 10-31-2010 at 06:53 AM..
Reason: Be even nicer than usual
My mother has always cut up old clothing that was not wearable or donate-able (well, cotton and other absorbent material..) into squares for dish rags. She usually has 2 shopping bags full in the utility closet and adds more as needed. They are fine to be used and washed for re-use, but also not so special that they are not disposable if they clean up some real yucky stuff. I can't imagine actually buying dish rags after using her method all my life! (I do paper towels for hand washing/drying, though- I don't like using a community towel for that and wouldn't want to wash a new towel every time someone washes their hands.)
I have cotton and linen kitchen towels hanging from the drawer pulls all over my kitchen. I wash all of them once a week unless I know I used one for something nasty. I don't worry much about the germ factor because I figure everyone who lives here has the same cooties anyway.
that most peoples immune system can't deal with some of the nasty germs that have evolved over the last 40 years.
.
It is the immune systems that have evolved, not the nasty germs. People used to have natural immunity to the germs, but our immune systems have forgotten how to deal with them, because they get no practice, and can't even recognize them anymore.
In poorer countries, people's immune systems continue to work just fine to combat all the same old nasty germs that you think have evolved.
There is now only about a one-year difference between the life expectancy in the USA and Mexico. Do you ever wonder why Mexicans are not being killed off by all those nasty germs that have evolved? Do you wonder why their immune system can deal with them?
What you have really done is to shut down your own immune system, by allowing it to atrophy, the same way your muscles would atrophy and become useless if you never called upon them to do any work for you.
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. I wasn't responding to you so much as to the people who won't put kitchen towels in with the rest of the laundry for fear of some type of contamination. If you kill the bacteria, there's no reason to segregate anything. The germs are dead. It doesn't get any cleaner than that.
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