The concept of ‘Bontamination’… Discuss.

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Is it possible that, mankind’s obsession with being perfectly clean, is what is leading to the onset of allergies, and weakened immune systems? And what about breathing problems, like asthma, copd, etc.  By inadvertently breathing in biocides (And that is what they are,) are we damaging our lungs, maybe even worse than by smoking? Are we effectively polluting the air we aim to ‘clean’?  If a biocide kills 99.9% of bacteria, isn’t it doing it absolutely everywhere, including our lungs, our first point of defence in a polluted atmosphere? In a word, Yes… Of course it is… And that would actually be Contamination, rather than Bontamination… I know of a lot of people who are using prescription inhalers.

Can we say that air fresheners are in fact ‘Contaminants’? Is airborne bleach more dangerous than the normally present airborne Bontaminants?  I’m no scientist, but I’m suggesting that yes, Sometimes it is…

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Today, it is the swimming pool… What is in the water? How long have we had swimming pools?  At school, the chlorine made my eyes sting… But we survived… And we will have swallowed some… We survived…

It didn’t ruin our skin…  It may have killed the germs, but it didn’t kill us. I guess it was a mild form of antibacterial solution. Perhaps just to prevent people being tempted to sue. In those days it was a ‘public’ pool.

In a ‘private’ pool, we will have signed that temptation away in the small print…

But people don’t become ill… Health clubs and spas stay open, and safe…

They stake their reputations on it…

And they are great places to be, without that dreaded smell of excessive amounts of chlorine, and the smell of tobacco smoke…

Remember those days?

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Okay… There is a commercial on British TV which suggests that ‘Every time we flush the toilet, odours get flung onto the soft surfaces…’ Now, my question is this… Is the proprietary product they want us to buy and  use, actually more hazardous to health, than the odour?  How does the product work, and just what exactly is the substance of an odour? Is it a gas? And if we breathe the chemical unavoidably, what will that do to our lung tissue?

We don’t know. Do we?

What we do know, is that asthma and suchlike conditions are on the increase in modern society.

It used to be ‘2nd hand smoke from cigarettes and tobacco’, But smoking has largely fallen out of fashion these days.

Fly spray is another one… If it is capable of wiping out tiny flies, surely it has some sort of effect on us, however minimal…

But, we survive…  At the moment, there is suggestion of a fourth Covid jab. We can class that as a Bontaminant, because it does far more good than bad, at least, as far as we can possibly know, it is early days yet.

We can class Antibiotics as Bontaminants, Don’t you agree?

Wannabe

 

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

What about mobile phones? People handle them all the time… Texting, surfing the internet, all the things that smartphones are capable of.  We place them down on tables, chairs, and shove them deep in our trouser pockets… We don’t give it a seconds thought… Yet the wallet that mine is in, is virtually threadbare. Certainly not cleanable. We handle them all of the time…

So… when we answer a phonecall, it takes both hands to open the case and take the call. Does anyone antibacterial gel their hands before doing so?

We don’t,  do we..? And yet, nobody, as far as we know, gets any discomfort or illness from doing so…  It is an accepted level of risk, actually making us stronger… That is Bontamination.

Touchscreens on tablets and computers… I have seen some so grubby, it is a wonder they work at all… Especially childrens ones…

Good,  Isn’t it?

Wannabe

 

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Thinking about the things we come through. Does anyone remember the old red telephone boxes? Fumbling for coins, dialing the number, Often standing in puddles of goodness knows what. Panels of glass missing, cold and damp on a wet day. Were the doorhandles ever cleaned? And if so, how often? Some of those places really reeked.  And we used cash, banknotes and coins…  When we go in the amusements arcades on holiday… Those two penny falls machines… Some of the coins were absolutely filthy… But we’d probably be eating crisps and sweets… If we ingested anything, it would be strengthening our immune system… To be honest, we wouldn’t be aware of it… And thus we find ourselves getting ‘Bontaminated’, and doing ourselves a lot of good in the process…

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

‘Bontamination’,  The delicate art of doing good… Of doing my duty as an adult citizen, sharing everything good that our world has to offer…  I remember when our children were small, we would go to the seaside in a fabulous trailer tent… Crawling around on wet grass putting in the last of the tentpegs, all ready to get the kettle on the stove, and settle in for the night. In the early days, it was gas lamps, with those little blue canisters of gas…  The gentle hiss of the gas was very relaxing.

Our trailer tent had proper beds in, so was comfortable. And if we got a weekend where we hadn’t got enough money to fuel the car, the tent would be set up on our back garden, using the home kitchen instead of the camping one. We loved it! It was brilliant for our growing family.  Nowadays, however, it is hotel beds, I’m a pensioner now, so my back isn’t quite what it once was. Plus the fact that I like to have someone else cook breakfast, and do the washing up! And I never look under the sheets in bed… There are some things that we are just better off not knowing… Within reason… I do like fresh sheets and pillowcases. And the complimentary coffee, tea, and biscuits in the room.

A question…

Do door handles really need to be perfectly clean? And if so, Why?

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Today, it is the turn of public swimming baths… They have so much chlorine in them, that after a while, my eyes start to hurt, mist up, and I have difficulty seeing my way around. That is basically disinfectant. So, If we aren’t sterile going in, we certainly are when we come out… And that is fine. Isn’t it?  It is the best we have, and is okay to the industry standard. The one I go to, is part of a Gym complex, so people are gonna be hot and sweaty. Mind you, The air conditioning in the gym makes the pool area warmer, and the water refreshingly cool… But not cold. The gym instructors are really nice people, and we can get a hot drink afterwards. We have to trust them to be okay, just as we trust motorists coming towards us, to stay on their side of the road. We just do… And that is something we can challenge the concept of Bontamination wiping out Contamination. We are doing the world a favour by touching things when our hands are only ‘Reasonably clean’.

In ordinary life, Can we allow ourselves to get just a little grubby, and just let it be so..?

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Could we say that, the cleaner we try to keep ourselves and other things, the more vulnerable we become? They used to say some children were ‘sickly’… But was that excessive hygiene, or not enough hygiene… If we look at the Victorians and Edwardians… How did any of them survive?  But today, we are the opposite, we seek to be surgically clean in everything…

If we go to a dictionary, and lookup the word ‘Vaccination’, who started it, plus how and why…  Could we call that ‘Bontamination’ in action?  Was it a good or bad thing?

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

At the seaside… Is ‘anything’ clean?

What about sun tan lotions… They don’t have the word ‘toxic’ on them…

Children get grubby during play. In the woods,  climbing trees. If they inadvertently touch a tiny amount of a mild natural toxin, they recover by being sick, but survive stronger for having gone through the experience.

Perhaps  the most common Bontaminant,  is that which we find on milk bottles… Let’s be honest here… Do we ever wash the top of a bottle of milk before unscrewing it, and then immediately ripping open the inner seal?  We don’t,  and whatsmore, we never have, and we are undoubtedly physically stronger, and more naturally resistant to our world.

This is ‘Bontamination’, a positive and good state of affairs. Isn’t it?

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

A nice refreshing cold drink, on a hot day… Bought from a shop, or taken out of our haversack, say… Ringpull cans… We don’t rinse the top of the can with boiling water, or wash our hands before pulling the ring to open the can… We drink the drink on the way home from the shop. It is the same with bottles. When we were kids, do you remember taking a sip from a pop bottle, then wiping the toprim with the inner palm of your hand? We all did, on the assumption we were in some way cleaning the bottle before passing it to our friends… We did, didn’t we? Of course we did! But, pausing now to think about it, Conversely, What would we have been putting ‘on’ the rim of the bottle? Never mind wiping it off, we would have been wiping stuff on!

We can call that process ‘Bontamination’, because, by doing so, we would have effectively been strengthening each others immune systems. A really good thing… Well, we survived, didn’t we?

Nothing is perfect… Because we cannot make it so… And that is probably just as well, Don’t you think?

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Anyone get food poisoning yet?

Really?

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Okay… I did have a head cold a couple of days ago, that resulted in me actually taking some cold relief medicine… But it was gone a day or so later…  I will have Bontaminated the world with it… Have I given it to anyone else? Or Indeed, Did I actually catch it from them first? We don’t know, do we? There is no way to know.

What about germs on my clothing? Is there really anything there anyway? Germs need moisture to live and breed. My trousers are dry. (When I was a child, they weren’t always, but that is a different story…)

I used to wet the bed at night… Many children do… Nocturnal Enuresis, they call it. I would go to school without washing my face and hands… To the best of my knowledge, we had no epidemics at school. Nothing… And I never missed even 1 day of school… In the 1960’s there was no real daytime TV. So I was better off at school, ‘Bontaminating’ everything I touched or came into contact with. I would get bullied because I smelt terrible…

Well… What a ‘ride’ that was!  I’m now a great grandparent in my own right… And still haven’t ‘Grown-up’ yet!

So, in a nutshell (To quote one of my books) We Bontaminate the world… The world is totally Bontaminated, by ourselves and everyone else, and has been since the year dot. We are always Bontaminated. And that is an important good thing… We can then adapt to the world around us, biologically as well as everything else…

Time for another slice of cake, without needing to wash my hands first… Because they look clean enough… Well, Reasonably so, anyway…

More later…

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Today, I went to a Coffee morning at my grandsons’  school. For the cold drinks they were using one of those really old metal jugs… At a guess, it is in excess of 60 years old… From the time when I was in primary school. Is it gonna be sterile? I haven’t a clue. It wouldn’t matter anyway, everyone in the room was eating cakes with unwashed hands… Anything picked up, is a bontaminant, and there fore good. That is how we build our essential resistance to the world around us…

Bontamination is very, very important, to our survival, in a rapidly changing world…

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Okay, If I  allow something to be ‘bontaminated’, is that wrong? Other people do it to me all the time… Most people don’t sanitize everything. And probably haven’t for maybe as long as we can remember. We have survived haven’t we? The evidence, and that is what it is, is actually  all around us. In other people, and what they do. I cannot be blamed for making someone get tummy-ache,  when they themselves haven’t ‘saniized’ everything around them… They are at far more risk from themselves. I will repeat that. Other people are at far more risk from themselves,  than they could ever be from Ourselves. And in a court of law, that rule will stand. In a restaurant, food poisoning does not happen straight after the first mouthful, we actually  have bodily defences, we survive.

So, can we say that the whole world is in fact ‘Bontaminated’, right from before we even set foot in it, and long after we are gone? I say emphatically,  Yes.

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

What about library books? Are they sanitized both inside and out? It would be a monumental task… They aren’t, are they? And quite possibly never have been… And in recent years even before Covid, our local library has taken to putting them all into plastic sleeves/jackets, making them sticky to the touch… They’ve been on tabletops, the floor, the seat of the car… And all without ruining anyone’s day… Having said that, when my OCD was at it’s peak, I would even try to antibacterialise my bank/store cards, for fear of getting something inside the card reader… So, the definitive proof is all around us… We are defended… By bodily systems that have been developing with us since the day we were born…

It makes us think, Doesn’t it?

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

What about Pro-biotic yogurt? It has live bacteria in it… Is it a ‘Bontaminator’?  It is, isn’t it? By having the stuff each day, we are involved in ‘Bontamination’, and that can only be a good thing. It actually takes a part in strengthening our natural defences. That makes ‘Bontamination’ a really good thing.

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

I went shopping today… And deliberately used the self-service till. I have no idea what the previous customer bought, they weren’t there at the time. A packet of hot cross buns, a pack of hard-boiled eggs, and a jar of pasta sauce. I have handled them, so will have others… Do I need to clean the wrappers before opening? Research says, No, absolutely not. We don’t, do we? By the time the eggs were in the sandwiches they would have been bontaminated, and I didn’t wash my hands during the preparation of the meal, or even before eating the sandwiches. The foregone conclusion is that, no ill effects will occur, at least not provable by any shopping procedures. And I re-use carrier bags dozens of times, just folding them up to store them away after use. And left, until next time I need them… No spraying needed.

We need this process, to make us stronger as the world mutates, with us alongside for the ride.

More later…

Wannabe

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

And there we go… Case proved for the defence, my defence. It turns out that everything in the supermarket was merely ‘Bontaminated’.

There was absolutely no ill effects whatsoever… No one got ill, so no one got sued.  It is all good, because any impurities simply stimulate our natural defences to get stronger. And that is not only good, it is vital in our modern world.

Thank God, for the concept of ‘Bontamination.’

I hereby rest my case.

Wannabe

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