Here’s an article in the Los Angeles Times that describes one woman’s campaign to rid fast-food playgrounds of germs.
Erin Carr-Jordan, a developmental psychologist and mother of four, has visited playgrounds at McDonald’s, Burger King, Chuck E. Cheese, and other fast-food restaurants in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois to monitor conditions and take bacterial swabs to be sent to laboratories for analysis. Playground equipment has tested positive for coliform bacteria indicative of fecal contamination, as well as strains of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus. She has lobbied politicians all over the country to pass legislation to address the matter, and has even launched a series of YouTube videos to increase public awareness of the problem.
Carr-Jordan embarked on her crusade after viewing a particularly dirty playground at a McDonald’s in Tempe.
“"It was disgusting," she says. "Stuff was smeared everywhere. Hair was stuck in the corners. It smelled terrible, and you couldn't see out of the plexiglass because of the filth."”
Revolting, isn’t it? I’m not talking about the damn playground. I’m talking about the actions of this meddlesome germ-phobic helicopter mom.
Are there really kids out there who don’t know not to lick the playground equipment? And do we really want to raise our kids in a germ-free sterile environment? That didn’t work out so well for David Vetter, the real-life Bubble Boy.
Lest you think this is all just a tempest in a teapot, think again. Sanitation is a good thing. But as with any input to a system, after a while you reach a point of diminishing returns, and then a point of negative returns.
There is evidence that early childhood infections are essential for proper development of the suppressor T-cells, which shut off the immune response after an infection has been conquered. Without the suppressor T-cells, the body’s immune system is like a car with no brakes: out of control. This may account for the skyrocketing rate of autoimmune diseases characteristic of the developed world – diseases such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, asthma, ulcerative colitis, and Type I Diabetes.
When I was a boy, we were outside every day after school, playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, climbing trees, splashing through streams, and catching frogs and snakes and turtles. We fell down and skinned our knees and survived. Nobody was out taking bacterial swabs to determine if we were playing in an aseptic environment. What a bunch of fearful little mice we have become. I’m just glad I had my childhood when it was still legal to be a kid.
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