Lipstick, headphones and popcorn: what else you can't share with your friends

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A call from a colleague's phone can result in an intestinal infection.

Many do not see anything wrong with sharing a hairbrush or lipstick with a friend, letting her husband call from his phone, or buying a large glass of popcorn at the cinema for the whole company. We will tell you why you should not do this.

1. Makeup products

Mascara, powder, lipstick and cream - everything about the face should be personal. The composition of microorganisms on the skin of each person is individual and your immune system has become accustomed to all microbes - the so-called.

But if you share makeup products with someone else, bacteria and viruses move out of your skin along with those products. In a warm and humid environment, which is created in a can of cream or a tube of lipstick, they can wait a very long time for their chance to relocate, and it is not a fact that their new owner has the same strong immunity as you.

Together with mascara and other products, you can transmit bacteria to your friend that will cause conjunctivitis or acne, and sometimes even measles, herpes and flu viruses. The way out is cream dispensers, which avoid direct skin contact with the contents of the container.

2. Headphones

If you prefer earbuds, don't give them to a friend to listen to your favorite song. Over time, sulfur accumulates on the accessory, in which various microbes also like to live - for example, staphylococci or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. And the more often you listen to music or audiobooks, the more colonies of microorganisms become.

Instead of passing on the infection, send your friend the link to the video or audio recording. Or at least wipe the earpiece with an antibacterial or alcohol wipe - this will reduce the likelihood of infection. Although it will not save one hundred percent.

3. Food

When you eat popcorn in a company in a movie company, saliva particles containing more than 1,000 types of microbes get into it - directly or from your hands. From them, microorganisms crawl onto food from the armrests of the cinema chairs and other objects that you touched.

If you try your husband's or wife's soup in a cafe, deciding whether you should order the same, then you expose yourself to special danger. Clemson University professor Paul Dawson and North Carolina State University professor Brian Sheldon, authors of Did You Just Eat This ?, calculated that 10,000 germs dive into a plate with every spoon.

These can be influenza viruses or E. coli, as well as streptococci that cause pharyngitis. The danger is reduced if the soup is very hot: quite a few microorganisms can tolerate temperatures above 50 ° C.

4. Drinks

It would seem, why in hot summer to buy two small bottles of water for two, if it is more profitable to take one big one? Alas, as in the case of food, germs do not sleep. Streptococci, meningococci, mumps or herpes viruses and other pathogens can enter your body with a sip of water.

5. Household supplies

Do you wear rubber gloves when cleaning the floor or stove? Do you wash your hands after taking them off? This must be done.

First, the inside of the gloves creates a warm and humid environment that is attractive to microbes. Secondly, in the process of washing the same bathroom, new microorganisms get onto the outside: salmonella, shigella, norovirus and others, more than 75,000 species in total.

And if you don't wash your hands after gloves, there is a chance to transfer all this to where you absolutely would not want - for example, to food for dinner. It is optimal to have different pairs of gloves for the bathroom and kitchen and store them in different places, and not yet share them with other family members. Let everyone have their own.

It's the same with towels - both kitchen and bath towels. Using one item at all increases the risk of acne, conjunctivitis, and bacterial skin infections. Individual hand, face and body towels for each family member will solve the problem. And in order not to get confused, you can buy accessories of different colors.

6. Personal hygiene products

First, of course, there is a toothbrush. The oral microbiome is extremely diverse. And given the fact that it enters the digestive system, there is nothing pleasant in someone else's variety.

Using someone else's brush can reward you, for example, with streptococci or noroviruses. And no, thorough washing does not help, since all the microorganisms from it still cannot be washed off.

Secondly, the comb: if it is not washed and disinfected, you can also help bacteria move from one person's head to another. And it would be okay only for bacteria - parasites are also not averse to mastering new horizons. The result can be head lice, scabies, folliculitis and acne.

The washcloth comes in direct contact with your skin and rarely dries completely. All human bacteria continue to multiply in it, and if someone else uses it, they move to their skin, causing acne, fungal infections of the nails, and sometimes even ringworm.

Soap is a little easier - if you live with a partner, your microbiomes are already a little used to each other. But since soap also collects samples from all skin dwellers, it is better not to use what lies in public places if you do not want to acquire someone else's fungus, staphylococcus, or norovirus.

Another important thing is the razor. It can damage the skin, which means it can open up foreign microbes, including hepatitis and HIV viruses, a direct route to the circulatory system. In addition, the razor, along with the hair, cuts off dead particles and bacteria inhabiting them from the skin.

And the next one who uses it, along with the desired smoothness, will receive folliculitis, genital warts or bordered eczema. The way out is disposable machines.

7. Shoes

Stranger's slippers or flip-flops are also dangerous. Being in constant contact with a person's feet, they become home to many (various fungi, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus), and the result can be an intestinal or fungal infection that can enter the body through micro wounds on the skin or from unwashed hands.

8. Accessories for manicure

If you are doing the procedure in the salon, be sure to make sure that all tweezers, scissors and other items are decontaminated.

Ask the master exactly how he fights germs. An infrared sterilizer is not suitable - you need, for example, a glasperlen (or dry oven). Only then will all bacteria be removed, otherwise you risk contracting hepatitis or HIV, not to mention fungal infections.

The safest option is disposable supplies. The same, by the way, applies to eyebrow tweezers, which are used by beauty masters.

9. Phone and keyboard

Send a letter from a colleague's computer using his keyboard and mouse, or call from your husband's phone? Thanks but no.

show that workplaces and telephones are, on average, even dirtier than a toilet seat. Doubt? Think about how long ago you wiped your own gadget with an antibacterial wipe.

It's okay if it's recent, but can you vouch for others? The result of using someone else's technology can be various intestinal diseases caused by too close acquaintance with the same E. coli (few people will go to wash their hands by sending a work email from a colleague's computer).

10. Gym supplies

When playing sports, people sweat, and sweat is the very warm and humid environment that microbes simply adore. On a yoga mat or an exercise machine that someone has been on before you, organisms that cause skin infections, fungi and viruses (herpes or even human papillomavirus), this is especially true where you are barefoot.

To avoid illness, try to bring your equipment wherever possible. Be sure to shower after your workout, and before that, do not touch your eyes or rub the neck of your water bottle with your hand.