Volume 12 Issue 1 » 79
TRIM LINES
Misguided
Passion
ARE WE TOO CLEAN
AND PURE?
by Vreni Gurd
»
HAS OUR FEAR OF GERMS LED
U S A S T R AY ?
Are we oversanitizing
our living and working
environments? Are we
eating too much food
that has been sterilized
through pasteurization and
irradiation? Are we overdoing
the antibacterial soaps
because we are too afraid of
getting sick?
Bacteria get a really bad rap. Most of us
associate bacteria with sickness, and we
often go out of our way to kill bacteria
by using antibacterial soaps and cleaners.
When we are sick, we often look to
antibiotics to kill bacteria in order to
become healthy again.
But only about 5% of bacteria are
actually pathogenic, and the other 95%
are beneficial. What do you think would
happen if all the bacteria in the world died?
It would not be long before all life on earth
ceased to exist, as bacteria are fundamental
to the birth, life and death of every living
thing on this planet.