Euro Vajd Sag

Monch Bravante asked:


Never underestimate the power of being small. Many a small thing had been able to put to shame big, formidable challenges quite unexpectedly. Think David and Goliath. In the same way, a group of tiny invaders known as germs can make even the healthiest person become sick when caught unguarded.

We live in an environment full of germs. No matter how frequent you wash your hands or how many times you bathe, you cannot totally get rid of them. They are a multitude of tiny organisms that cause illness. These microscopic body invaders include bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other infectious organisms which could be present in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, or in the water that you use for washing the dishes and taking a bath. They are everywhere, practically in every surface that you can think of.

The following is a list of top ten places where germs may be found waiting for a host to infect:

Public Bathrooms. No matter how sparklingly clean it may appear, virtually any surface in a public restroom carries germs which may include intestinal bacteria, such as E.coli and Enterococcus, both of which cause diarrhea. Sitting on the toilet is not the main source of infection, but from touching the seat, stall door or sink. Germs gain entry into your system when you accidentally touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with an infected hand.

Home Kitchens and Restaurants. When kitchen employees do not practice good hygiene like hand washing especially after using the bathroom, they can easily taint food with fecal matter and, in the process, contaminate the food with infectious bacteria or viruses. Another possible source of infection is when we eat raw food which, at times, could also be tainted with a wide range of bacteria. Even ordering well-done food is not a guarantee against bacterial infections especially when a kitchen worker or waiter handles raw food and then touches your dinner plate.

Workplace. According to a study by University of Arizona microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba, surfaces used by teachers, accountants, and bankers have the most germs. Phones, desks, and computer keyboards are considered germ magnets.

Airplanes. Having so many people in close quarters for hours at a time is a breeding ground for germs. Upper respiratory infections are common in such cramped quarters because viruses and intestinal bacteria can spread easily during a flight. When someone has a bad cough, the surfaces throughout the cabin and particularly in the lavatory can harbor germs.

Hotels and Motels. Whether there’s truth to the rumor that the bedspreads in hotels are never washed, these are not likely to spread germs. The bigger risk is found in the bathrooms that have not been properly cleaned, contaminated surfaces such as doorknobs or phones. While bed bugs living in the mattress or headboard may not carry the disease, their bites could cause allergic reactions.

Swimming Pool. Water-borne illnesses over the past decade have increased. A pool is easily contaminated when someone with diarrhea goes swimming. Chlorine doesn’t always kill the germs immediately. Cryptosporidium can survive for days even in a properly disinfected pool.

Movie Theaters. This is another close quarter venue that draws many people for a couple of hours. Since viral infections can be contagious a day before symptoms appear, people infected with cold or flu virus may go to the movies without knowing they are sick.

Day Care Centers. Children are prone to getting fecal matter on their hands. Infection occurs when another child plays with a toy that was previously touched by another child’s contaminated hand. This is called fecal-oral transmission, a common source of diarrheal illness in children. Since young kids love to put things in their mouth, shared toys can also become contaminated with saliva.

School. Whenever there are children, hygiene becomes questionable. While school-aged children may have grown out of their thumb or toy-sucking habits, they may be less than concerned about washing their hands when they should.

Doctor’s Office and Hospitals. Since you are sharing a small space with many people who may have infectious illnesses inside a clinic, the waiting room chairs, doorknobs, toys, and even your doctor’s clothing can become contaminated. Those most at risk for picking up germs at the doctor’s office are patients who have some type of medical procedure. Hospitals have a high concentration of germs and vulnerable people in the same place. There is also increased risk of exposure to bacteria that are resistant to treatment with antibiotics.

 

Shaun Parker asked:


There is a bit of a panic on of late regarding the cleanliness of our hospitals. Since this job has been sub-contracted out to commercial cleaners, budgets have been cut and no matter how efficient a cleaning service are, they can only do a limited amount of cleaning if hospital budgets only allow for occasional cleaning. This, it is believed, has led to many an outbreak of the deadly MRSA virus that has spread like wildfire through our NHS hospitals.

This is not restricted to hospitals. There are many places where people are becoming pre-occupied with germs particularly where the vulnerable are concerned - the people at either end of the age spectrum. So, what is the answer? Well, there is a plethora of cleaning products on the market, can we not simply roll up our sleeves and get scrubbing? Well, let’s have a look at just what these cleaning products do and whether or not we would be better off to stick to simple water with steam cleaning gadgets.

There is a huge choice of spray bathroom cleaners on the market for us to choose from and they will all clean and kill germs with adequacy. Unfortunately, most of these cleaners also contain benzene, a known carcinogenic. Others contain a mix of chemicals that react once in contact with the air and can produce severe irritation or breathing difficulties in humans.

So, just how bad is exposure to cleaning products? Well, research has found that even if a pregnant mother is regularly breathing in cleaning products, or the child is exposed to it at a young age, this can extensively raise the chances of the child developing asthma. Sounds like a good reason not to do housework if you ask me!

There is an alternative. There are cheap, simple gadgets on the market that require nothing more than water. They then heat this water to steaming temperatures and this steam is then applied to the necessary area.

So how come if water can do the job, we are bombarded with all these chemicals that we are told we cannot do without and that if we don’t our kids are going to be consuming more bugs than food? Well, as with many things, it’s simply a marketing ploy. Of course they are not going to shout about the benefits of steam cleaning because that wouldn’t sell their products.

So what are the benefits? Steam cleaning is extremely efficient. It can kill germs, remove dirt, grease and ingrained grime with little effort. It will not release harmful chemicals to be breathed in and it will have absolutely no detrimental effects on the health of the user. It does everything that a commercial cleaner claims to do but without harming the environment, without harming unborn babies and without contributing to asthma or cancers.

Steam cleaning is becoming a big thing in restaurants due to its ability to cut through grease. Grease is notoriously difficult to remove, particularly after it has been baked on, yet steam will remove it relatively quickly. It is a good method to employ in commercial kitchens as it leaves no residue and no smells to contaminate food. It also leaves a kitchen meeting the standards of health and safety officials.

Steam cleaning can also be used in the domestic home and it an excellent cleaning method for those who have the environment in mind.

Sharon Bell asked:


 

In this day of instant everything, consumers looking for a fast way to clean their hands often turn to disinfecting wipes or hand sanitizers found in the shelves of most drugstores and supermarkets.

These popular products are often advertised as “99.9 percent effective against germs” and supposedly offer a convenient way of fighting disease-carrying bacteria without going through the time-honored ritual of hand washing. It is for this reason why they are widely used in hospitals, schools and other public settings. In America alone, an estimated $1 billion a year is spent on these products.

But are these products effective as advertised or are you better off with plain soap and water instead

Two new studies give conflicting views. In one study, disinfecting wipes were found to spread – rather than prevent – hospital-acquired infections like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that affects 100,000 people in the United States each year.

At the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, researchers from Cardiff University’s Welsh School of Pharmacy reported that when used improperly the wipes may spread bacteria rather than remove or kill them. This was observed by Jean-Yves Maillard, Ph.D., Gareth Williams, Ph.D., and colleagues who studied hospital staffers as they used the wipes to disinfect hospital rooms.

“While most of the wipes tested did remove large numbers of bacteria from contaminated surfaces, they also commonly transferred live bacteria to uncontaminated surfaces when used in more than one place. Even some wipes that claimed to kill bacteria were found to transfer live bacteria from one surface to another,” according to Salynn Boyles of WebMD Health News.

“Many of the wipes were effective, but the message is that they have to be used properly,” Williams said.

Now for the good news. While frequent hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of diseases that are responsible for school absenteeism, a study published in the journal Pediatrics said that you can get the same benefit from the frequent use of disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizers.

This comes from researchers at the Boston Children’s Hospital who conducted a randomized, controlled trial at an Ohio elementary school where wipes and sanitizers were used in some classrooms, but not in others.

The wipes were used once a day to disinfect the students’ desks at selected classrooms while the students were told to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer several times a day. In other classrooms, the students simply washed their hands.

After eight weeks, the researchers found that there was no difference in the absentee rate due to respiratory illness in both groups. But the group that used the wipes and hand sanitizers had a lower rate of gastrointestinal illness.

“Hand washing is really the best way to prevent the spread of infection, but this study suggests that hand sanitizers and disinfecting wipes can also play a role. This is a relatively low cost and simple way for schools to help keep kids healthy,” said researcher Dr. Thomas J. Sandora.

To benefit from these findings, the Mayo Clinic recommends alcohol-based products that contain at least 60 percent alcohol. For extremely dirty hands, however, use regular soap and water.

To look good, use Lumnaderm, a whitening cream that eliminates freckles, unsightly age spots, sun spots, blemishes and hyperpigmentation. When used as directed, Lumnaderm will balance uneven skin tones and illuminate your skin. For more information, visit http://www.lumnaderm.com.

Akhil Shahani asked:


You spend most of your waking hours in the office. No doubt it’s well laid out, has the latest equipment and appears neat and well maintained Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations (Hardcover)

by Thomas J. A. Jones (Author) . But have you thought about how clean it is? And we mean, really clean?

The fact is, the office is a hotbed of germs, a microbial monstrosity! When you think about it, how could it be anything but that? It’s a place where a large number of people spend long hours in close proximity; usually there’s less ventilation and direct sunlight filtering in and with carpeting around, using a floor disinfectant isn’t a possibility.

No wonder, when one person sneezes, so many catch a cold, literally!

It might interest you to know which are the dirtiest areas in an office, from a “germ” point of view. No, it is not the toilet or the pantry, but the humble telephone! Telephones get close to people’s mouths, and are never disinfected. Think twice before you use a colleague’s extension next time – you might actually be venturing into bacterial heaven.

Tables and desks rank up next on the dirty hot list. Especially in those cases where the user eats at the work table.

You’ve dealt with computer viruses – now get a load of the real thing! Computer keyboards and mice, which are in constant contact with human hands are natural nesting places for germs. And so are coffee mugs and glasses.

While none of this may surprise you, here’s something that will. The number of germs in the office vary with the profession of the occupants. Schoolteachers have the worst – but to be fair, you can’t blame them. It’s their little students who are responsible for the mess. It might amuse you to know that lawyers aren’t the dirty professionals they’re made out to be – they have the most sanitary offices Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations (Hardcover)

by Thomas J. A. Jones (Author) !

Research also shows that germs love women – with their cosmetics, knick knacks and food habits in tow. Talk of gender bias at the workplace!

So, what can you do to keep your office a cleaner place Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations (Hardcover)

by Thomas J. A. Jones (Author) ?

• Simply, sanitise it. And that means usage of disinfectants on a regular basis.

• Removing the carpets will make a huge improvement.

• Ensuring some natural ventilation, as far as possible, is another healthy measure.

• Designate eating areas, and establish a routine to disinfect those places.

Of course it also helps if people maintain high standards of personal hygiene, but we won’t go into those details here!

Resource:

Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations (Hardcover)

by Thomas J. A. Jones (Author)

Management of a housekeeping operation entails scheduling staff, deliveries, services and maintenance, budget analysis, cost-controls and compliance with regulations. A well-run housekeeping department is integral to the success of any lodging operation.

This revision of a well-regarded introductory textbook includes expanded coverage of leadership and training issues, providing a number of case studies, and presenting additional reference material through a support website confirming its usefulness as a management text.

Janet Winter asked:


Meet Mr. Germ - a crafty invader targeting everyone from infants to adults. His goal is to make us sick! The cold and flu season is his favorite time of the year, and everyone is a target. Once he finds a ‘victim’, he can spread his germs from one person to another in a fairly rapid chain reaction.

First, let’s dispense with the notion that cold or wet weather will make you sick. It won’t. But germs will. Knowledge is a powerful tool against the germ menace and knowing the definition of a germ is a good place to start.

There are four major types of germs: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. For people in most countries including the U.S., our main concern is bacteria and viruses. Bacteria causes infections such as sore throats, ear infections, pneumonia and even cavities.

Viruses are the germs that cause chickenpox, measles, flu, and other diseases. They can live for a while on things like doorknobs, a computer mouse or any other surface.

Bottom line - germs are found everywhere in all kinds of places.

For adults, particularly those with infants, toddlers or children in school, wellness begins with common sense. Since most germs spread through the air from sneezing, coughing or even just breathing, it’s important to cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze and your mouth when coughing. If you use a tissue, be sure to dispose of it immediately and wash your hands.

Of course, germs also spread through sweat, saliva and blood. Just a simple handshake followed by touching your nose can cause germs to spread. Since Mr. Germ’s worst fear is soap and water, washing your hands often can help to keep Mr. Germ on the run.

Have you ever stopped to think about the number of germs that are transmitted by shopping carts? How many hands - both adult and children - have grabbed the handle of the cart you select? If you have an infant or toddler in the seat, think of the germs that could be transmitted by another child’s drooling or even something as gross as a leaky diaper!

Many stores now provide antiseptic wipes by the entrance so you can disinfect the handle and seat. Use them! As the saying goes “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

But is this enough for a child who hasn’t built an immune system that’s sufficient to fight off the many viruses that run rampant these days? There is something else you can do to foil Mr. Germ.

A great creation, known as a shopping cart cover, was designed by a grandmother to help protect her grandchildren from illness. The cover typically does extra duty as a diaper bag and purse, plus a toy and bottle holder. It quickly and easily rolls up to the size of a small duffle-type bag. You can hold your child with one hand, unroll the cart cover with the other, and be ready to in about 30 seconds. Best of all, they’re colorful and attractive so your child goes shopping in style.

The design of the cover protects not only anything in reach of busy hands but bare legs as well. No part of your child will come in contact with an area touched by another child.

One other area of concern is restaurant highchairs. How many times have you found the tray to be sticky or otherwise unclean and the seat contains food from the previous user. This makes Mr. Germ very happy. You can foil his plan because the same cover used for the shopping cart doubles as a highchair cover. There are also covers made specifically for high chairs that typically come with placemats for the tray.

The best way to protect your family from germs is to steer clear of the things that can spread them and cause that inevitable chain reaction. The first step is to use common sense to protect against Mr. Germ. Then, focus on any products that can prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses. If just one of these suggestions works and saves a trip to the doctor, you’re ahead of the game.

Fiona Fisher asked:


Every day you see television commercials for the latest germ-killing products on the market. Companies are constantly reminding you of the pesky, persistent bacteria that apparently attacks your home throughout the day. It’s remarkable that something so small, that you can only see with it a microscope, can be so harmful! But germs are real. However, you have to know what they are exactly to truly combat them. Here’s a guide to germs and how you can keep them out of your kitchen in particular.

Bathrooms have a bad reputation for hosting threatening germs, but this reputation is not really earned. Kitchens are where the majority of germs in your house are located. And that’s why it’s so important not to ignore them. It’s easy to forget that the invisible little buggers are lurking behind every corner, but if you do, they will certainly make your life a lot tougher.

The reason you can kill a germ, is because it is indeed a living organism! There are four kinds of germs: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Many germs may invade plants, animals and humans temporarily and with little consequence, and some germs are even good! For example, there is bacteria in out intestines that help us digest our food. Also, doctors are able to engineer medicines and vaccines with the help of bacteria. But for the most part, if germs decide to hang their hat in your body, they will try to take over. Ever been stuck in bed with the flu? If you answered “yes,” then you were infected by a virus. Or maybe you’ve had an ear infection! The culprit was bacteria in that case. Germs consume your much-needed energy and nutrients and produce nasty toxins; toxins that cause those classic symptoms of sickness, like sore throat and coughing. So germs, for the most part, are not our friends.

They are everywhere though. And in places where you store food, like the kitchen, this can be a unique problem.

The best way to prevent germs from invading your body is to simply wash your hands often. Germs are typically transferred from person to person. If someone coughs on your or even just touches you, those nettlesome germs may hop from them to you. This is why door knobs and other objects that people commonly touch are especially germ-ridden. By simply washing your hands with soap often, however, you can kill germs before they have a chance to make you sick. If you’ve just pet your dog or coughed, then you are more vulnerable to germs, so wash your hands. It’s as plain as that.

So, in the kitchen, the same rule applies. Remember to wash your hands often and always before you prepare food. However, there’s a bit more you can do than that. Here are some steps you can take to keeping your kitchen nice and clean, so that those malicious germs don’t stand a chance.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a neat freak to create a healthy environment for your family. In addition to washing your hands frequently (with soap and warm water), you can use the following tips to ensure those germs die young.

Your counters and sink are a breeding ground for germs. Because your hands, food, utensils, rags, etc, will all grace the counter tops and the sink, you have to keep them clean. Don’t cry over spilled milk. Just clean it up immediately!

What you use to clean the counters and sink is not as important as you might think. A sponge or rag or a one-time wipe will all work perfectly. The key is to keep them clean too! Throw that sponge or rag in the washer often. You can also soak your dishcloths in warm, soapy water when they’re not being used. The worst thing you can do is clean up your kitchen with a dirty dishcloth. This is why those throwaway disinfectants can be really advantageous! (Always use disinfectant sprays, as well, to go along with your other cleaning supplies.) Remember that warm water and soap are a germ’s enemies.

Moreover, be wary of cutting boards. The nooks and crannies in your home are commonly invaded by germs, until they can find a better, living host. When you use a cutting board, you will likely make small dents into it with your knife, and these small crevices lure germs. So make sure that you scrub your cutting board hard after every single use.

Obviously you want your dishes to be **** and span. Thankfully, we have dishwashers these days that do the trick. It can never hurt to give the dishes a little rub with a clean dishcloth before putting them away in the dishwasher however.

Another surprising piece of advice is that paper towels and cups are better than the alternative. You may want to dry off your hands with that cloth towel or drink from that glass. However, sharing hand towels and drinking glasses is the first thing germs want you to do! Why not buy some cheap dispensable paper cups to keep around the kitchen and invest in paper towels? It’s a really simple way to prevent those germs from traveling.

Also keep in mind that a room where food and water are common, you have to be extra careful. Damp areas can produce fungi and food that’s left out too long will encourage the growth of bacteria.

So, instead of fretting about how clean your toilet bowl is or wiping that sponge over your counter top 20 times in a row, just take into consideration these tips and your kitchen will be less inviting for those ugly germs. Yes, you probably will come down with a cold every once in a while, but you certainly can be on the offense more often than not if you know where to find and kill those germs!

Greg Kolodziejzyk asked:


I would like to speak out about what I believe to be a very serious problem in our modern society - in my opinion, second only to global warming.

It’s called the obesity epidemic, and if the statistic that 60% of North Americans are overweight is correct, then there is a very good chance that YOU are one of them. That’s the most difficult part of this whole quest of mine - I end up speaking to people who don’t really want to hear my message. Nobody likes to be called fat and out of shape. In fact, I think most people don’t really even view themselves as being fat and out of shape. This is due mostly to averages - if everyone in our society were super-model skinny, and you were 10 pounds overweight, you would feel fat. In reality, the average person is probably 20 to 40 pounds over weight and if you are only 10 pounds over, you might think that you are doing pretty good. It’s this comparison to the status-quo that is the most dangerous aspect of this epidemic. It is happening to almost everyone, and we can’t even see it.

1.4 million people in the US died of heart disease last year accounting for nearly 40% of all annual deaths. This compares to less than 50,000 who died from car accidents. You wouldn’t even think about driving your car without a seat belt, yet many don’t think twice about digging into the chocolate donut or hitting Mickie D’s for a Quarter Pounder at lunch. Frankly, I am less concerned about what and how much we are eating and more concerned about our active pursuit of inactivity.

Anthropologists believe that early man used to walk the equivalent of a full marathon (that’s 40 km or 26.2 miles) every single day of his/her life. Now the average North American walks the equivalent of 200 meters per day (that’s 1/5 of a single kilometer or about a quarter mile). Think about that for a second. Three million years of evolution has produced an animal that required a certain minimum of activity each day just to function normally. Our activity levels have been dropping drastically for less than a hundred years - a mere .003 % on the big time line. Our bodies can’t adjust to this drastic change in our environment, and as a result we are getting sick and we are dying of a variety of diseases associated to our new found sedentary environment.

I was watching a show on 60 minutes a while ago where Rick Berman was speaking out about how we have become a ‘nanny state’ where we are treated like children by our government who regulates most of what we can do and can’t do and what’s good for us and what’s not. Mr. Berman suggests that the obesity epidemic is not an epidemic at all. He says that an epidemic is a virus that we have no control over. Becoming obese is a choice, he says. Well, I don’t agree. In a way, obesity is like any other modern day disease, in that we ‘create’ the disease by our own doing as a society.

One of the reasons the North American natives were overrun by Europeans, according to the book Guns, Germs and Steel, was because they brought diseases with them that they were immune to. The natives weren’t, and most died as a result of these diseases, not as a result of warfare like most people think. The origin of these diseases resulted from the European domestication of animals - viruses passed from the animals to people and over hundreds of thousands of years, the European people slowly became immune to these germs. In a sense, our diseases evolved WITH the Europeans and were a result of their progress as a society. When the Europeans arrived in North American with their germs, the native American people were immediately infected and died.

Over the last fifty to seventy five years, modern day society has strived to mechanize most of what we used to have to do by hand, or foot. Transportation, machines, factories, etc. This has resulted in a fairly sedentary environment where at times, it is difficult if not impossible to accomplish things the old fashioned way - using physical effort. For example many new neighborhoods aren’t even being designed with sidewalks! You can’t even go for a walk!!!!

During a recent school presentation I did, I discussed the possibility of walking or riding bikes to school. After the presentation some of the teachers were concerned that this would present a danger, since in some cases, there were no low-traffic routes that were safe for travel.

What I am getting at here, is that becoming over weight has become a situation which is almost out of our control - we can’t help it. We are constantly bombarded with television advertising convincing us that we need to make a trip to the fridge and teaching us about the new meal between breakfast and lunch called “Leakfast” and how the “snack” is now a mandatory meal between lunch and dinner. Fast food and junk food is cheap and it has been designed by scientists to make it taste about as good as it can get. How can we not become influenced by this? Just to be normal in today’s society means that we will probably end up getting fat. We can’t help it. This is a disease WE are creating - just like those we created that killed off the native Americans.

The first step in dealing with the problem is letting ourselves off the hook on a personal level. It’s not really our fault - but it’s ALL of our faults. We need to recognize that some serious changes are required AS A SOCIETY or the obesity virus will continue to spread and grow. And this starts by ridding ourselves of the guilt that so many of us feel about our weight and state of fitness. You don’t feel guilty when you catch a cold, but you do everything in your power to cure yourself. We need to treat the obesity epidemic the same way - it’s not your fault, but you should still do everything in your power to cure yourself.

And unlike the common cold, a cure for our expanding waste lines is readily available! This problem CAN be overcome, and it does NOT require medicine or modern technology. Just a return to what our bodies are craving - some activity!

If any of you need a little motivation or some advice on becoming more active in your lives, I am here to help. Send me an email, and I’ll offer what ever I can.

Sam asked:


Computer viruses are just like germs whose only purpose is to spoil computer’s normal functionality. They come to computer territory by different ways like by any removable media, or if the computer is connected through any network, by internet and by e-mail.

These viruses are block of some instructions that enters in to the system without the permission of the computer user.

Different types of computer viruses exists are

Macro viruses

Companion viruses

Link viruses

Parasitic viruses

Multi-partite viruses

The first ever virus that was developed by two brothers, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi in 1986 and it was named Boot sector virus. When network concept was not widely spread viruses are usually spread by the removable mediums like through floppy diskette and flash drives etc. But nowadays most of the organizations are interconnected through some network that provides an easy path for the viruses to make number of victims just in one go.

So it always suggested after installing any Operating system to the computer anti virus program should be installed just after it. Because it will be working as defensive wall against any virus and will not let it to get inside and to harm any of your data file or operating system. Anti virus detects all the incoming viruses coming to your system from any device and will provide you the facility to scan it before copying any thing from it to your hard disk.

Precautionary Measures:

In order to get rid of these computer germs some precautionary measures has to be taken to have safe data; not affected by any computer viruses. Like

Always scan removable medium for viruses

Don’t open E-mail by unknown sender

Don’t download attachment which are not familiar

Use firewall programs

Install updated Anti-Virus programs

Regular backups of data

Secure network connection

Scanning of hard drive on daily basis

Careful while downloading any software from the internet