The New York Times printed a very informative article today that will make you think twice the next time you ask the nurse's aide for a sponge bath:

Dish towels, sinks, refrigerator door handles and warm, moist, crevice-filled sponges are ... breeding grounds for bacteria.

"A sponge that's been in use for no more than two or three days in a kitchen will harbor millions of bacteria," said Elizabeth Scott, co-director of the Simmons Center for Hygiene and Health in the Home at Simmons College in Boston. ...

To respond to [bacteria in the home kitchen], you have to do something very banal: wash your hands.

Yea, you'd like it if I washed my hands, wouldn't you, huh? I bet you'd also like it if I stopped sticking dirty needles into movie theater cushions. I'm onto your little game.

In tomorrow's NYT: The health risks posed by snorting cocaine off of public toilet seats.

» Squeaky Clean? Not Even Close [NYT]