On 10/4/2015 2:32 AM, micky wrote:

Imagine looking into a box full of small, stainless steel scissors
with their little "mouths" agape -- and wondering what sort of
germs each may have individually been contaminated with?! No way
in hell do you want to put your *hand* into said box!

I wouldn't do it either, but don't they run these things through the
sterilizers before they get rid of them.

You know nothing of how (or why) they have come to you. If someone
hands you a handgun, do you assume the safety is ON and it is
UNLOADED? :

All you know for sure is they are sharp and probably will have no
problem cutting your skin. They are "uncovered" and may have been
"stored" like this for months or years (while exposed to whatever).

Why is someone "discarding" these items if they could just as
easily sterilize/autoclave them and reuse them?

Staph is all around us, all the time. All you need is exposure to
a particularly nasty strain and a "skin scratch" for it to get a
foothold. Gives one renewed respect for the days before antibiotics!

Indeed. I don't ask for antibiotics when I have a cold, but I gather all
those who do are creating antibiotic-resistant germs that may punish me
as much as the people who encouraged their development.

The same is true of vaccinations. There is a minimum coverage factor
that protects the *population* (prevents an "outbreak" from
getting established). Yet, folks seem to think it should be their
"choice".

Still, my mother was a bit shocked when I told her that I didn't cover
public toilet seats with toilet paper before I sat on them. No
diseases yet. I think a lot of women would burst rather than sit on a
public toilet. I don't know how they travel.