Do you pee in the pool? Survey says, yes
That’s me and Sorenne in the pool in Phoenix last week. And I’m pretty sure one of us, at some point, peed in the pool.And I'm pretty sure all the drunk fashionistas at the afternoon pool parties emptied themselves in the pool.
A new study by the Water Quality and Health Council found that nearly one in five adults admits to urinating in a swimming pool instead of using the toilet.
Eight in 10 adults are convinced their fellow swimmers are guilty of such a crime, the study said.
Nevertheless, health officials insist that swimming in and even swallowing urine-contaminated water isn't harmful to someone's health.
Don Herrington from the Arizona Health Department, "Urine in itself has been purified through a whole variety of bodily processes so that it's removed a lot of the contaminants in it.”
Swimmers should be more concerned about swallowing parasites than swallowing urine, officials said, especially cryptosporidium.
Phoenix Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Amy Blakeney urged sick swimmers to stay out of the pool.
Listeria, mommies and me
Amy’s first meal after returning home with baby Sorenne? A snack spread of soft goat cheese with bite-sized pate and beet sandwiches, something I picked up from my Danish mentor, John Kierkegaard, back when I worked as a carpenter’s helper.
Smoked salmon or turkey breast, with tomato slices and fresh basil was on the menu for breakfast. That should cover many of the potentially listeria-laden foods that pregnant women shouldn’t eat for nine months. But you won’t hear that from listeria expert Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods, who is still strangely silent on the tough questions.
Amy’s mom was here for the birth and that turned out to be awesomely cool. But she did have to fly home through the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, which according to KNXV-TV, contains numerous restaurants with “major health violations. In some cases, repeatedly failing to follow health code requirements. …
“Famous Familigia in Terminal 4 received 17 major violations including ‘deli slicer soiled with food debris’ and 12 of 15 employees ‘without food service worker cards. …’
“In October 2008, the Kokopelli Deli in Terminal 3 was cited after an employee ‘washed his hands then brushed his teeth with his fingers then went to work with food.’ In Terminal 4 at Flo’s Shanghai Cafe, employees were caught ‘cutting chicken with bare hand,’ ‘portioning peanuts onto chicken bare handed.’”
If you’re waiting on an e-mail reply from me on anything in particular, you may be waiting awhile longer. And while my usual e-mail style is terse, typing one-handed means the responses will be terserer. It’s nothing personal, just a baby thing. Really. It’s not you, it’s me. Really.
Cupcakes and confections without infections
Guest barfblogger Michéle Samarya-Timm of the Franklin Township Health Department in Somerset, NJ, writes:
Amy Silverman of the Phoenix New Times recently wrote about the lack of handwashing at Sprinkles Bakery, as noted by the Maricopa County Restaurant Inspection Team. In her assessment, enforcement of handwashing at this establishment is “as ridiculous as the ban on bake sales at my kids’ school.”
Handwashing…ridiculous?? With all the recent media coverage of outbreaks and recalls, taking steps to prevent a potential outbreak should not be viewed as ridiculous, but a public health essential.
Outbreaks in cakes are not unusual. In 2005, an outbreak of norovirus gastroenteritis associated with cake affected up to 2700 persons in Massachusetts. According to the CDC, it is likely that one or more food workers at the source bakery contaminated the cakes through direct and indirect contact.
In Japan, nearly 100 schoolchildren and teachers suffered diarrhea late last year after allegedly being infected with norovirus from cake served in their school lunch.
And it could happen again. Cake icing, as innocent as it may look, has the potential to cause large gastrointestinal outbreaks, as it is usually evenly mixed, and not processed further. Most foodborne outbreaks of norovirus illness arise from direct contamination of food by a food handler, immediately before consumption. Icing, or cake, can very easily become contaminated with norovirus because the virus is so small and because it probably takes fewer than 100 norovirus particles to make a person sick.
Investigations support that a majority of norovirus outbreaks are from oral-fecal transmission. Prevention for norovirus, and many other foodborne illness is ---you guessed it –no bare hand contact of ready to eat foods and following through on conscientious handwashing practices.
We don’t want a confection to become an infection – nor do we want a potential dose of diarrhea, norovirus, or other potential nasty in our food – or anyone else’s. If this shiny chain is “all about image” as reported, that image should include following through on good handwashing practices. Maricopa inspectors should be praised – not ridiculed – for working to prevent potential disease outbreaks.
Yes, I like my cupcakes with sprinkles, but I also want my cupcakes to be handled in a sanitary manner and accompanied by a chorus or two of Happy Birthday – while all involved are enthusiastically lathering at the handsink.
