Death by 3M

Could this common household item cause your death?

There is an entire industry that would like you to believe that a sponge will kill you. Unless that sponge is sprayed with chemicals that cause it to be "anti-microbial." Because the sponge, which you've used for years (hopefully not the same one continuously because, ew) on your dishes is a homicidal maniac, ready to fell you with one misplaced cold or flu germ. It's beady little soap-holding pores are ready to take you to Kingdom Come.
I've always been a sickly person. I catch colds, morph them into infections of the sinuses/lungs/throat and get way more sympathy than if I just had the sniffles. If I catch a cold, my mother immediately advises me to get to the doctor before I need yet another inhaler, antibiotic or week home with pneumonia. If I get within ten feet of a sick child, I have what they've got. If anyone should be purchasing these products, it should be me, the sickly kid raised by a germ-conscious mom.
Yet the whole thing is ludicrous to me. Last year, during a company remembrance of a coworker who passed away, the office manager put out tissues. Not the average Kleenex, but tissues with antibacterial orbs floating in them. It was kind of disturbing to think of the little bacteria in the tears I was trying not to let out of my eyes falling onto the tissue and instantly dying. Since I was in quite a state anyway, this just made me more upset. I didn't like crying into what, ironically, looked like bacteria dyed blue under a microscope.
That makes soap, tissues, aresol sprays, toilet bowl cleaners, lotion, "waterless soaps" and a bevy of other products designed to kill germs. When I was a kid, it was antibacterial soaps, which kill things that make you puke/get a stomach bug, such as E. Coli. Now the newest thing is antimicrobial, which kills microbes, such as the ones that kill cold and flu germs.
Instead of developing these products which kill germs (or cause them to adapt, making them resistant to medicines that will help kill the germs in severely ill people) I think someone needs to teach a refresher course on basic hygiene. All the antimicrobial sprays and coatings won't help if the general public doesn't understand that squirting some soap on your hands, having the soap slide off your hand when you stick it under the faucet, rubbing your hands a couple of times and then turning off the water won't cut it. You need to use soap (any old kind will do-- it doesn't have to be anti-anything), warm water and a little bit of friction for longer than .5 seconds and then the germs? The bacteria? Are gone. Off your hands, and down the drain. Easy!
The kitchen sponge is a bone of contention at my apartment. My roommate Deb, who is far more germ-phobic than my other roommates and me, is especially persnickety when it comes to the kitchen sponge. It has its own special holster that is has a drain so it doesn't stand in tepid post-wash drips for hours a day. Deb picks the bits of cheese and charred sauce remnants off it, and replaces it about once a month. She and Emily fight over using the sponge on the kitchen counter/table. Deb is fervently anti-countertop, while Emily doesn't give a crap, which sends Deb into orbit when Emily wipes off the table and puts back the sponge without rinsing. I believe that the kitchen table, especially when coated in chicken juice and bits of food (which it is when I'm done cooking) should be sprayed with a kitchen cleaner (Simple Green is what's under the sink) and wiped clean with a paper towel.
Not to mention that not being exposed to germs makes you get sicker easier. Fact. It's a war of good and bad bacteria (you shell out $.89 a yogurt to eat bacteria) throughout your body. If you catch the occasional cold, it boosts your immunity. (Of course, now I can't find the study that backs that claim up, damn Google.) It keeps kids in daycare from developing weird allergies. People lived for thousands of years, bathing way less frequently than we do, without anti-germie products. While I don't advocate eating undercooked chicken or anything, we all need to chill the hell out about germs.
And if you get sick? So what? I can see if you have a compromised immune system that you'd like to avoid the germs, but for the folks with normally functioning systems you should just chill out. You get to take some time off from work, crash on the couch for hours on end (without the "I should be doing something" voice kicking in), watch Ellen and knock yourself unconscious with cold medicine. It sucks when you're about to go on vacation, or when the Patriots are riding through town, but a cold is an excuse to chill. So use regular Kleenex, wash your cutting boards thoroughly after chopping up some fish, keep your sponges fresh and you'll survive. At least until your cat shoots you.