Doubtless our present hygiene focus using anti bacterials for frequent hand washing, spraying and wiping down of surfaces will stay for some while into the future while the Covid 19 lurks in the background. At the same time it is interesting to note that before the turn of the century the Japanese had become increasingly fastidious when it came to hygiene but with a downside.
In 2013 Tokyo Medical and Dental University professor emeritus Koichiro Fujita warned that Japanese were undermining the development of their natural immune systems with keppeki-sho," translated variously as fastidiousness, fussiness over cleanliness or phobia of dirt. Over several decades Fujita had made many study visits to rural Indonesia, where public sanitation practices were close to nonexistent. Yet, he says, children in Kalimantan grow up free from such common maladies in Japan as atopic dermatitis, asthma and pollen allergies.
Fujita observed that an obsession with killing germs had led to the loss of natural, good bacteria essential for good health. He noted that two Japanese obstetric hospitals suspect 50 to 60% of premature births or miscarriages may have been due to infections brought on by overwashing and with the loss of protective bacteria.
Fujita said it is important that people be in contact with nature of the greatest extent possible. ""A society where germs are all around us is not a dangerous one. Most of the germs around us have not changed for 10,000 years or more, and there's no need for us to overreact, letting themselves be made to dance to the tunes of the marketers of 'hygienic' and 'fastidiousness."
Until we have some means of control in relation to Covid 19 it makes sense to make an issue of safe hygiene practices. But from all the advertising across a huge swathe of products, hammering the notion of protection and cleanliness it seems probable that profit and sales increases will be misused to the point of overkill.
apnews.com
abcnews.go.com
