On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:42:22 -0000, "RichardS" noaccess@invalid
wrote:

"Mal" wrote in message
...

snip

I would agree that public transport is a public health issue.

During my career, I have sometimes had jobs where I needed to use public
transport (train into London, follwed by a tube trip), and some where I
have
to drive.

Every winter that I have had to use public transport to get to work, I
have
had 3 or 4 bad colds, and at least 2 days off work. Every year I had to
drive, I had no colds at all.

If ever something infectious is released on the Underground, you can be
sure
most of London will catch it.

Mal



True, there are potential public health issues, but they are not unknown and
in themselves are not an argument for not using and developing a public
transport system. The risks of infectious agents being released on the
tube network are certainly known about by the security services, they've
been talked about often enough.

Despite the presence of infectious diseases in London (TB, for instance)
evidence does not back up the various catestrophic predictions, because the
majority of people using transport systems do remain healthy and free from
serious infection. If what "might" happen was actually "likely" to happen
then surely this would not be the case? (and I know that TB is a serious
health issue, and that numbers of sufferers in large cities such as London
are growing, but it is not at serious epidemic proportions, and if public
transport networks were such high risk places then the numbers would have
grown at an unstoppable rate).

A few years ago I remember listening to one of the 5-minute pieces on R4
Today programme (I think). A research paper apparently showed that
extroverts were less likely to suffer from common colds and other infectious
diseases than introverts. The conclusion of the paper was that the more
people you came into contact with then the more your body's immune system
was able to deal with potential infections. Isolating yourself from the
masses would in that case be a strategy of folly in the long run.

Of course! Look at the American Indians and many other ethnic
communities where Britain sent its colonial "missionaries" - and
promptly gave the indigenous population a disease which their immune
system had not yet encountered. They dropped like flies. I believe it
is vital that we mix as much as possible. Who remembers the dances at
the Hammersmith Palais and other venues? They really got the germs
a-flyin'! Along with the arms and the legs and the inhibitions.

A doctor of my acquaintance a number of years ago was convinced that another
winning strategy for avoiding nuisance infections was simply to wash your
hands when you first arrive at work each morning and at home in the evening.
Reasoning went that a lot of infections are contracted through contact.
Person with a cold hurries to the tube station in the morning. Has slight
runny nose, gets wiped with hands. They hang onto the straps (handrails
now) and a few minutes later you hang onto the same strap. You get to work,
pick up your pencil, chew the end of it, or wipe your mouth or another such
contact. Cold virus now introduced quite happily into your body. Washing
your hands reduces your chances of this (no need for any of this
anti-bacterial paranoia handwash stuff - normal soap is fine).

That's another thing I do, too. Always be aware that the person before
you, serving you, giving you change etc may have just returned from
Number Twos without washing the hands. I never touch the faceplate or
handles on doors in public spaces, such as multistorey car parks, but
look for an area to push or pull that is less likely to be
contaminated.

Whether this has any basis in fact or not I couldn't tell you, but it's a
reasoned line of thinking, and is after all a similar basis to the practise
of surgeons scrubbing up before performing surgery.

How many people wash their hands before eating a sandwich at lunch?
That is, they could have just shaken hands with the flash salesman
from the London branch, who only a few minutes before was fondling the
office bike in the stationery cupboard. Chlamydia with that BLT,
anyone...?

MM