Family Guide
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 02:05
Written by Daisy Wakefield

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There are certain health hazards to living in any megalopolis. The churning of life in an urban mechanism takes its toll on air, water, food, and civility. Living in China adds other factors: communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, questionable food-production process, the use of lead in paint and gasoline, to name a few.

Even the most cavalier parent can have doubts guilt about whether this is the healthiest environment in which to raise children. Those from greener pastures try to sanitize and disinfect as best we can against the pollutants that might threaten the health of their families. Washing hands is likely – and sensibly -- a Pavlovian response upon coming in from outdoors. Products that begin with ‘antibacterial’ are probably scattered around the home. Water and air is filtered and food bleached. Kids our scrubbed with one of the 700-plus available antibacterial products on the market.

Today, any number of antibacterial soaps, wipes, sprays, foams, creams and detergents, can be found on counters in the West, and now in Asia.  But are antibacterial pillows and mattresses, antibacterial earplugs, and antibacterial tissue paper really the work of concerned scientists, or merely gimmicks used by marketing executives to play upon the anxieties of a microbe-phobic public?

Even if a certain amount of hygienic precaution is necessary and prudent, a meticulously cautious approach to cleanliness may not actually prove healthy in the long run.  Studies are beginning to show that children who are exposed to a modest quantities of germs and subsequent childhood illnesses are actually less prone to sickness as adults. The natural antibodies built through this exposure serve as a lifelong defense.

Overenthusiastic use of antibacterial products may provide a short-term sanitary environment, but it may also rob the body of the opportunity to build its own resistance. Overuse of these products may also kill off weaker and beneficent bacteria, accidentally strengthening their tougher and more virulent cousins.

Antibacterials are also implicated in the proliferation of allergies. An excessively sterile environment may short-circuit the process of immune system maturation, potentially leading to decreased allergen resistance. A higher incidence of allergies, asthma, and eczema are found to exist in people who have been overly sheltered from microorganisms.

The Center for Disease Control cites Stuart B. Levy in a Presentation from the 2000 Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference:

We must think not just in terms of resistance but also in terms of the changes in the microbial ecology of our infants and our homes. We exist in the bacterial world, not bacteria in ours. Unfortunately, we believe that we can rid ourselves of bacteria when, in fact, we cannot. Instead, we should ‘make peace’ with them. Although we need to control pathogens when they cause disease, we do not have to engage in a full-fledged ‘war’ against the microbial world.

Each expatriate family must decide upon their own approach to the potentially harmful pollutants that are a part of living in Shanghai. Nevertheless, before buying those antibacterial chopsticks (yes, they really do exist), it might be wise to allow the body to accomodate itself to the new microbial environment. Given a chance, it will probably prove remarkably competent in doing so.

Purell Antibacterial Hand Sanitizers (800 820 5292), English speaking rep: Alec (13817392649)

Aquars Water Filters (6295 9103)

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