THE CURE FOR ALL DISEASES
As the counter and table and stove get wiped “clean” a film
of contamination is left everywhere. A few varieties may die but
most of them don't. The general moisture in the kitchen is enough
for them to survive. The cloth or sponge recolonizes the kitchen
and dining room table several times a day.
No doubt, the last thing you do before leaving the kitchen is
squeeze it dry with your hands. Now all the pathogens are on
your hands!
Where do your fingers go? To your mouth to remove a hull or
bit of something from your teeth. Or to eat a last bite of
something. Or to turn a page of the telephone directory. You have
just eaten a culture sampling from your own kitchen sponge. In
two hours they are already multiplying in the greatest culture
system of all: your body! You have given yourself your next sore
throat, or cold or headache. The worst possible habit is to wipe a
child's face and hands with the kitchen cloth. Or to have a handy
towel hanging from the refrigerator handle.
To sterilize the sponge: drop it into a 50% solution of grain
alcohol at the end of each day. Keep a wide mouth glass quart jar
handy just for this. Keep the jar tightly closed and out of the
reach of children. Dunk your sponge and plop it onto the sink. If
you stand it on end in the sink it will partly dry overnight.
Another way to sterilize the sponge or cloth is to microwave
it, after wetting it, for 3 minutes. Any shorter time simply warms
and cultures the pathogens and multiplies them. Or boil the cloth
like our grandparents did. Drying out the dish cloth helps kill
many–but not all–pathogens. It takes three days of drying to kill
all! Another strategy is to use a fresh cloth or sponge each day,
putting the used one to dry until laundry day.
During the day, set the sponge on end to start drying and slow
down culturing.