Montreal City Weblog

Kate 10:50 on 2019-11-08 Permalink Reply  

• EmilyG 11:02 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  It’s quite a problem. I’ve seen people eating greasy/salty foods, then licking their fingers, then touching the metro poles. Though even without that, you get a lot of people touching the poles in general, especially when the metro’s crowded. And contagion can be increased if people are holding a pole with one hand, their bag with another, and having almost nowhere to cough.

  The article suggests to wash your hands after taking public transit. There are many metro stations that are not near a public washroom or other place to wash your hands. I bring hand sanitizer with me.

• Uatu 11:31 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  Actually I learned in my hygiene course at work that cellphones are apparently covered in fecal matter since people don’t wash their hands properly and rarely clean off their phone screen. Think about that during your commute. Everyone is on the phone and touching everything… Ewwww….. ;p

• Ephraim 16:25 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  Emily… hand sanitizer doesn’t do a good job on viruses and of course require people to actually follow directions. In most cases, this means keeping your hands wet and moving for 10 seconds. But they are useless for C. difficile, Norovirus, and Cryptosporidium. Norovirus is one of the most common… they make cruise ships disclose cases, but it’s in every shopping centre, every metro, bus and senior centre. The sanitizer needs to be alcohol based and with a concentration over 60%. Triclosan is banned in most countries, but NOT Canada… and it doesn’t work in hand sanitizer.

  Nothing beats soap and water. In fact, we should consider putting out more sinks with soap all over the place.

• Chris 18:26 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  I bet hand sanitizer gel is one of those things we’ll look back upon as a stupid idea one day.

• Ephraim 18:57 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  @Chris – It’s better than nothing… which isn’t saying much. Running your hands under water while rubbing them actually works better…. even without soap.

• walkerp 19:02 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  How much of this is just hysteria? What are the real impact of these microbes? Do we really think we can avoid getting sick altogether? Are we really getting any fewer colds and flus in the winter because of a plastic bottle of gel that ends up in the landfill?
  Just wash your hands every now and then. I think the stress of obsessing over other people’s germs is probably a lot more harmful for your long-term well-being than touching some cooties on the metro.

• Chris 19:05 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  Ephraim, it’s probably worse than nothing (when used too often). Of course it’s great if you just took a shit in the forest and have nothing else, but the germophobes that use it multiple times a day are doing themselves harm. If you have no idea what I’m referring to, start here: https://time.com/96112/why-im-breaking-up-with-hand-sanitizer/

• Ephraim 21:58 on 2019-11-08 Permalink

  @Chris – The antibiotic resistance is about the non-alcohol stuff with triclosan, not the regular alcohol stuff.
  @WalkerP – The Norovirus is a real concern… it’s often seen as a 24-72 hour stomach virus. Because it’s pretty rampant.

  @Kate – You should wash your hands when you come home, even if you don’t take public transit. You’ve touched so many things.

• js 00:07 on 2019-11-09 Permalink

  I’m pretty sure if you can resist the at-times overwhelming compulsion to lick the poles, windows, seats floor, and random commuters’ phone screens you’ll be fine.

• Kate 09:15 on 2019-11-09 Permalink

  js made me laugh.

  I don’t think there’s reason for paranoia, although I do wash my hands when I get home by bus or metro, and before making something to eat. But I’d wash ’em before handling food anyway.

  Wait till you see what La Presse found on public transit next (see above).

• EmilyG 19:49 on 2019-11-09 Permalink

  I don’t usually lick metro poles, but I don’t want to touch someone else’s hand-grease/spit combo on the poles.

  (The “usually” was a joke 😛 )