Dangerous Habit Drinking From Cans.

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masona

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This is from our safely newsletter at work,

Dangerous Habit Drinking From Cans.

A women has died from the disease Leptospirosis after drinking straight from a coke can that was covered in dried rat's urine.

The victim was alone on a boat and apparently drank from the cans that she had put in the boat fridge. She was admitted to hospital a day later and died within three days of admission.

Rat urine contains toxic, deathly substances and the danger is when your lips and mouth come into contact with the can surface. Therefore, you should either wash the top of the can before taking a drink or pour the drink into a glass.

This safety rule applies to all drink cans since any of them can become infected during storage. In fact, a study in Spain showed drink-can tops have more bacteria and germs than public toilets.

So next time you want to pour that drink straight down your throat, make sure you wash the top of the can first.

Frighten, specially when we're now out numbers by rats in the UK for the first time.
 
Surely you should wash the can either way? I mean, pouring from an infected can will wash germs into the glass. And surely washing should be done with some kind of sterilisation agent too?

I have wondered about the hygiene issues of drinking from cans that have been handled by who knows.

If we all just switch to drinking beer, will that cure this problem? It saved the blacksmiths during the cholera outbreaks in London. :D
 
AdamW said:
Surely you should wash the can either way? I mean, pouring from an infected can will wash germs into the glass. And surely washing should be done with some kind of sterilisation agent too?
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Specially if you're abroad.

It's the same with peanuts in the bowl at the pub bar, it's full of men's urine because 95% do not wash their hands after the toilet.

I have a another report somewhere regarding underground train seat covered, it's has more germs than you can imagine, even rat urine. I see if I can find later.
 
Mice have a weak sphincter on their bladder, which means they leave a trail of urine wherever they go (helps the moggies find them amongst other things)... does this apply to rats as well?

That peanut statistic is gross... true, but gross!!! The thing is, I have noticed that people I work with will very carefully wash their hands with soap and water at work, but as soon as we enter the pub they stop. I think it is because many pubs have pretty grim toilets without soap or anything so people balance the risks and decide it is better to go without.

I was in this great pub in Bucks, the toilets were so pristine and welcoming that you felt like it was rude not to avail yourself of the sink and soap!
 
I think it was in Amersham. My friend assured me that it was the one from the infamous scotch scene in Four Weddings. The Crown?

Has a really nice cobbled back-street type thing instead of a pub garden.

Beer was passable, nothing spectacular. But passing the beer was a pleasure :D
 
Kings arms then, but technically you were in Old Amersham. Actually it could be the crown, the film was shot between the two pubs, which are only a stagger away from each other.
 
If you share a can of drink with someone, the last few mouthfulls are mainly yours and their saliva. :shock:
 
I've never really liked the current trend of drinking from the bottle in pubs. I was brought up in a pub and have seen where the crates are stored before a quick dust down before putting on the shelf. Just think, a lot of pubs have dogs. Dogs like to 'mark' new things in their patch. Crates are delivered daily. Forget the rats, think about the cats dogs, mice and other lovelies next time you are swigging your Bud from the bottle. Cheers!!
 
AdamW said:
If we all just switch to drinking beer, will that cure this problem? It saved the blacksmiths during the cholera outbreaks in London. :D
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There's no way you're that much of a geek, you must be putting it on. If not, God bless you.
 
Nah, it's famous, you have probably heard of it yourself:

John Snow traced a cholera outbreak to a single waterpump: everyone nearby got cholera except for the blacksmiths. The blacksmiths only drank beer, and didn't get cholera, because the water is boiled during the brewing process... well, actually the mashing process... perhaps I am a geek! :lol:
 
Porker said:
I was brought up in a pub and have seen where the crates are stored before a quick dust down before putting on the shelf.
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I worked in a bar in a golf club, was an 18th century mansion. So, bottles stored in a dank and dusty wine cellar. I never really thought about it as I stocked up the bitter lemons and tonic waters... but occasionally you find a really manky-looking bottle and wonder about the hygiene... I mean, bottles come off production line, sterile and clean. But what happens to them even before they get to the bar: probably plenty of sweat dripped on them from the bloke who has to carry them!
 
smiths said:
AdamW said:
If we all just switch to drinking beer, will that cure this problem? It saved the blacksmiths during the cholera outbreaks in London.
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There's no way you're that much of a geek, you must be putting it on.
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Adam's right you know. The clue that set Snow on the right track, was an issolated case of a woman, in an area (Kensington I think), where no other cases had been seen before. It transpired, upon investigation, that this well-to-do woman, sent her maid to Soho every day, to collect water from the standpipe there. (she had lived there years previously and preferred the taste).

Yes, I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a geek too (I used to study endocrinology, Just for fun!):roll:

MasonA said:
It's the same with peanuts in the bowl at the pub bar, it's full of men's urine because 95% do not wash their hands after the toilet.
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Considering the practicallities of carrying out an analysis to prove this urban myth. The amount of DNA material, from any individuals urine, on the said peanuts would be microscopic. To get an ID on this small amount would require the use of a technique known as "DNA Amplification". DNA Amplification can only be used on samples free of contaminating DNA. (such as material from others urine or the peanuts themselves). Therefore, I propose, that the scientific analysis has never been undertaken.

As I have said before, 80% of all statistics are just made up.

The interesting point is, as abhorent as this sounds, human urine is generally sterile! If you are in the Jungle and you cut yourself, in the absence of clean water, it is recomended that you urinate over the cut, to clean out any infectious material. So this is probably a case of, what you don't know, won't hurt you.
 
Well, you wouldn't do it by testing for human DNA! That would pick up skin cells off the fingers of people who picked up peanuts.

You would actually wash them down with distilled water, and titrate to find the amount of urea in the solution.

You would have to do this quite quickly as urea dissociates relatively quickly (hence why it isn't used as a fertiliser apart from in the developing world, where it's used cos it's cheap). But, I would imagine that after an evening of refilling a peanut bowl, wash it down and you can find this out.
 
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