Have You Cleaned Your Iced Tea Dispenser Lately?

 

 

Commenting on the security guard who told me and my daughter about dubious disease that can be found in a shopping mall fountain, Bill Bush writes:

Legionnaires' disease, too! If it is highly chlorinated, it is probably about equivalent to a kidie pool, which is full of kiddie poo! And meningitis! Typhus! Cholera!

Here in the South, a few years ago a TV station did an expose on iced tea dispensers, some of which had not been cleaned since marching off the ark, and a variety of serious diseases were cultured from the dispinser nozzles. It was treated as a serious issue by health departments and inspectors. I am personally concerned about salad bars and self-serve buffets. I eat at them only when they first open, before the ravaging hordes have handled everything their children have not already coughed on, tasted and put back, or blended with the three neighboring dishes.

 

Comments

[Gordon C]

Just remember, 100% of all water drinkers die...proven fact! Not to minimize being sick but why is it that these stories often appear during local TV ratings periods?

When I hear "We looked at [our] office coffee cups and were surprised at the findings!" from a local TV station, my first thought is how cheap are you that you cannot even leave the studio for a story?

And the best is (On Tuesday) "This Thursday at 11pm, something in your own home could kill you!" Really? And you think it prudent to make me wait 48 hours? Thanks for self-identifying your lowest rated weekly newscast.

I often wonder how much of our increasing life span is due to engineering/sanitation versus better medicine. Despite the snarky tone of this post, my bets are on the engineers.

[Ed Strnad]

More people in The US will die from heart disease and cancer than from all the infected water fountains, drink dispensers, and germ-laden bathroom sinks in the world combined.