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Mass Hand Sanitizer Use: Long Term Effects On The Environment

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
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Where I work, there are tons of public hand sanitizer stations, I use it regularly as do others.

Do we have any idea what the effect on the micro-bacterial world will be though due to so many people em masse using hand sanitizer on a global scale as we are seeing? I'm wondering if we are going to get another nasty bug based on our extreme use of hand sanatizers, but that is just my hunch, and it may be that resistance in bacterial cannot be created against the alcohol content.
 
We are just selecting for nastier critter that are waiting in line to bite us in the ass; fungi are up on that list and our antifungal effectiveness is waning.
 
We are just selecting for nastier critter that are waiting in line to bite us in the ass; fungi are up on that list and our antifungal effectiveness is waning.
... as prophesied in Toho's Matango!
 
Gotta be spooky when mushrooms turn on you!! :eek: Yokai-in-the-making!
The American version would be a killer french fry or something.. :twisted:
images
 
Where I work, there are tons of public hand sanitizer stations, I use it regularly as do others.

Do we have any idea what the effect on the micro-bacterial world will be though due to so many people em masse using hand sanitizer on a global scale as we are seeing? I'm wondering if we are going to get another nasty bug based on our extreme use of hand sanatizers, but that is just my hunch, and it may be that resistance in bacterial cannot be created against the alcohol content.
Maybe all the bacteria will just be surly and drunk in future :p
 
I'm not using hand sanitiser at work or at the supermarkets, just soap and water when I go for a pee.
Why? Because a zillion people touch those sanitiser pumps and the stuff just makes my hands dry and cracked.
 
‘Hand sanitiser is a good defence against covid’.
’But there isn’t any hand sanitiser available’.
’Ok. Production has been working overtime and now there’s plenty. It’s even free outside shops and supermarkets’.
’I don’t want to use hand sanitiser’.
’In that case, stay at home and don’t touch anything’.
 
One of the many sad results of policy put forward to address this virus is the mass rejection of so many things we were meant to care about. Things like kid's educations. And the environment. I am genuinely very, very worried about the issues we will have in the future when all (think every single country on planet) the plastic-based PPE ends up dumped in the sea. It will literally be an ecological catastrophe. You know, the sort of ecological catastrophe we claimed to care about.

Same as MrRING's hand sanitiser example.
 
One of the many sad results of policy put forward to address this virus is the mass rejection of so many things we were meant to care about. Things like kid's educations. And the environment. I am genuinely very, very worried about the issues we will have in the future when all (think every single country on planet) the plastic-based PPE ends up dumped in the sea. It will literally be an ecological catastrophe. You know, the sort of ecological catastrophe we claimed to care about.

Same as MrRING's hand sanitiser example.
I would hazard a guess that the massive reduction in people visiting the beach, pleasure boating, party boating, cruising etc, the amount of polution from rubbish and jetsom im the sea has reduced since the pandemic, picturesof face masks in the sea are worrying but overall not as bad as the waste dumped into the sea would normally be.
 
I'm not using hand sanitiser at work or at the supermarkets, just soap and water when I go for a pee.
Why? Because a zillion people touch those sanitiser pumps and the stuff just makes my hands dry and cracked.

My cousin is an anaesthetist and has told everyone in our family not to use hand sanitiser stations purely because of the amount of people touching them. I always carry a small bottle of it with me.

Which I sip from when my hip flask runs out.
 
I would hazard a guess that the massive reduction in people visiting the beach, pleasure boating, party boating, cruising etc, the amount of polution from rubbish and jetsom im the sea has reduced since the pandemic, picturesof face masks in the sea are worrying but overall not as bad as the waste dumped into the sea would normally be.
Unforteanately 'Souleater' the opposite seems to have happened! :(
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...-weather-after-rule-of-six-begins/ar-BB1f9VWE
 
One of the many sad results of policy put forward to address this virus is the mass rejection of so many things we were meant to care about. Things like kid's educations. And the environment. I am genuinely very, very worried about the issues we will have in the future when all (think every single country on planet) the plastic-based PPE ends up dumped in the sea. It will literally be an ecological catastrophe. You know, the sort of ecological catastrophe we claimed to care about.

Same as MrRING's hand sanitiser example.

Industrial civilisation and probably civilisation in general is an ongoing ecological catastrophe, it just hasn't caught up with most people in the OECD yet. You're right about the PPE creating an additional problem though, I see masks littering the floor and greenspaces everywhere around me.
 
Yes i saw a report on the news, this is however not in the sea.
Going back to the reported '6 tons' of rubbish collected in a park in Nottingham, i fear this was a lack of foresight on behalf of the local authority, thousands of people were obviously going to descend on open spaces and get drunk, due to the relaxing of lockdown restrictions and the sunny weather, whilst i believe everyone should take their litter home with them, if there is no adequate bins available, a lit of young people just dont give a f*ck, if the council had hired a few 1 ton biffa type bins, and placed them strategically around the park, it probably would have lessened the amount of litter left behind, and for the cost of a few bins compared to the time and cost of clearing up afterwards, it would probably gave saved them money too.
 
Yes i saw a report on the news, this is however not in the sea.
Going back to the reported '6 tons' of rubbish collected in a park in Nottingham, i fear this was a lack of foresight on behalf of the local authority, thousands of people were obviously going to descend on open spaces and get drunk, due to the relaxing of lockdown restrictions and the sunny weather, whilst i believe everyone should take their litter home with them, if there is no adequate bins available, a lit of young people just dont give a f*ck, if the council had hired a few 1 ton biffa type bins, and placed them strategically around the park, it probably would have lessened the amount of litter left behind, and for the cost of a few bins compared to the time and cost of clearing up afterwards, it would probably gave saved them money too.
Bear in mind though, that a large amount of what gets left behind in rivers, roads, and in the environment in general does eventually end up in the seas.
 
I would hazard a guess that the massive reduction in people visiting the beach, pleasure boating, party boating, cruising etc, the amount of polution from rubbish and jetsom im the sea has reduced since the pandemic, picturesof face masks in the sea are worrying but overall not as bad as the waste dumped into the sea would normally be.

We were down at the beach today and my husband and friend picked up an abandoned kite on the beach, which we left next to the rubbish bins up by the car park (too big to fit in). Some people are just moronic litter louts.
 
Sadly compared to some societies we do not bother to teach youngsters to respect the environment

Until we do that, or let the police treat flytipping as a licence to print fine money, it will go on.

When I was in Cornwall I saw a lot of people chuck beachgear; I had plenty of beachgear as a kid, but it always went home with me and I used it several years.

What has happened?
 
Ironic then that most of today’s ‘Climate Aware’ kids have been leaving shitloads of bottles and cans lying around after they’ve been sunning themselves in parks and seasides this easter.
They are aware of the enviroment, they just dont give a f*ck and think its up to everyone else to deal with, the youth today seem to resemble the 80's yuppie attitude. Its all comsumerism and short term thinking, got to have the lasted trainers/phones etc, to hell with how much it costs the enviroment to produce these items that they will use/wear only until the next 'must have' version is promoted by some cock on social media
 
Thats part of it, yes.

But really I Think its `all problems and no solutions`

If there is no solution you are not obligated to do anything.
 
They are aware of the enviroment, they just dont give a f*ck and think its up to everyone else to deal with, the youth today seem to resemble the 80's yuppie attitude. Its all comsumerism and short term thinking, got to have the lasted trainers/phones etc, to hell with how much it costs the enviroment to produce these items that they will use/wear only until the next 'must have' version is promoted by some cock on social media

Old Man Shouts at cloud.

Old farts (old fartery can begin at any age) have been complaining about "the young" since time immemorial, I suspect we can find numerous examples among the surviving Greek and Roman texts, I think there may have been at least one FT Classical Corner on this very subject. There may even be examples in older writings.

Having the latest anything isn't new and is not confined to the young. Plenty of middle aged people rip through smart phones, tablets, computers. Worse they go through cars and other items that are larger and even more environmentally damaging to produce. That's nothing compared to billionaires buying an even bigger luxury yacht and a third private plane. Given wage stagnation and decreasing opportunities young people have less disposable income than they did a generation ago and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually spent less on stupid shit, they are apparently drinking less than my generation did when we were their age and scarily drink less than we drink now.

Humans are stupid apes who care about status and term term profit, if we are what "intelligent life" looks like than the "intelligence" is worthless.
 
Old Man Shouts at cloud.

Old farts (old fartery can begin at any age) have been complaining about "the young" since time immemorial, I suspect we can find numerous examples among the surviving Greek and Roman texts, I think there may have been at least one FT Classical Corner on this very subject. There may even be examples in older writings.

Having the latest anything isn't new and is not confined to the young. Plenty of middle aged people rip through smart phones, tablets, computers. Worse they go through cars and other items that are larger and even more environmentally damaging to produce. That's nothing compared to billionaires buying an even bigger luxury yacht and a third private plane. Given wage stagnation and decreasing opportunities young people have less disposable income than they did a generation ago and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually spent less on stupid shit, they are apparently drinking less than my generation did when we were their age and scarily drink less than we drink now.

Humans are stupid apes who care about status and term term profit, if we are what "intelligent life" looks like than the "intelligence" is worthless.
Seems like "we" are the only species on this planet suitably able to judge exactly what intelligence is... so, you have to be intelligent in order to recognise it! Yes?
 
Seems like "we" are the only species on this planet suitably able to judge exactly what intelligence is... so, you have to be intelligent in order to recognise it! Yes?

Yes but other species seem to get on pretty well without it though.
 
Seems like "we" are the only species on this planet suitably able to judge exactly what intelligence is... so, you have to be intelligent in order to recognise it! Yes?
I think only in what we as humans classify as intelligence, we classify animal intellegence as a seperate entity whilst judging animals humanistic behaviours as intellegence, its all about our perception because we dont know if a crow, who knows how to use a specific tool in order to gain some advantage, looks at another crow who cant and thinks 'dumb ass'.
 
Yes but other species seem to get on pretty well without it though.
Totally agree... it's more the case of what do they/we use intelligence for ~ in what direction is more useful. If it's to improve ones lot then that is good. However, if it's using it for negative reasons, or just to take advantage over others then that is not an intelligent use of intelligence.
 
Where I work, there are tons of public hand sanitizer stations, I use it regularly as do others.

Do we have any idea what the effect on the micro-bacterial world will be though due to so many people em masse using hand sanitizer on a global scale as we are seeing? I'm wondering if we are going to get another nasty bug based on our extreme use of hand sanatizers, but that is just my hunch, and it may be that resistance in bacterial cannot be created against the alcohol content.

To be honest I think the mass of plastic we are still dumping into everything is probably more of a problem.
 
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