There are some lucky people who never have to deal with the
frigid cold of winter. I know there are
lots of people who enjoy winter, but I on the other hand am fine to see a skiff
of snow on Christmas morning and then want to be back in sandal weather – or at
the very least bare foot weather temperatures immediately thereafter. This detest of cold weather is somewhat
contradictory as I happen to love crocheting – scarves and hats in
particular.
It was then with a heavy heart that I read a recent
APIC email
that gloves and scarves
are germy. I love scarves. They are great accent pieces to virtually any
outfit and there’s such satisfaction in completing a crochet project and
getting to wear a new scarf. I’m not
advanced enough to crochet gloves or mitts, but I can state with conviction
that I start wearing gloves as soon as my steering wheel is cold to touch in
the morning. They’re a necessary piece
of attire during the winter – unless you want frost bite that is. And now I’m being told scarves and gloves
germy? It’s more than my already
germophobic mind can take!
But I suppose if I put my logic hat on it’s not really
surprising. There’s a ton of literature
talking to the number of times we touch our faces with our hands. Why would this stop when we put on winter gloves? In fact, it likely increases because what
does your nose do in the cold? It
runs. What do you do when that happens
and you do not have ready access to a tissue?
You casually dab your nose with your gloved hand. Gross right?
It gets better. Similar to
touching our faces, over the course of the day we are constantly touching things
with our hands; door handles, railings and other surfaces that have been
touched by hundreds or thousands of people who had walked the same route ahead
of you. Did you dab your nose with your
hand before or after touching all those
public spaces?
It really doesn’t matter, the ugly truth is that gloves like
your bare hands pick up everything - and when was the last time you washed your
gloves? The gloves I generally wear are
leather or suede...I’ve NEVER washed them!
According to APIC, missive gloves
can carry bacteria such as
E. coli
and viruses such as the cold virus or
flu virus
. To make matters worse, the type of material
your gloves are made from can directly impact the ease of transferring
germs.....leather gloves of course being amongst the worse due to the ease with
which they can transfer germs to another surface or face.......
Now for my beloved scarves - the flu virus can live on
clothing like scarves for two or three days, while diarrhea-causing viruses,
such as rotavirus and
norovirus
, may thrive for as many as
four weeks! How many times have you
coughed into your scarf...or used your scarf to dab your nose? Thankfully I do tend to wash my scarves with
some frequency, but only because I love the feel of a downy soft scarf next to my
neck and face.
Thankfully, my current crochet project is a blanket for my
nephew, but I do have 3 skeins of beautiful super soft chunky yarn waiting for
me to make my next hat and scarf combo!
I’ll be sure to wash them more frequently; I’m just not sure what I’m
going to do about my gloves!
Bugging Off!
Nicole
