McDonald's Says Hold the Tomatoes: Salmonella Outbreak Raises New Hand Hygiene Concerns

Actually, McDonald's is just one of the many restaurant chains, along with a variety of grocers that are taking tomatoes off the shelf after an alarm was triggered that attributed raw tomatoes to a unique strain of Salmonella.

Whether this is a topic of real concern, or a ploy by a commodity trader to cause the price of tomatoes to drop remains to be seen. But what everyone has seen: ongoing recommendations to use proper hand hygiene, including the "when washing with soap and water isn't convenient, we recommend hand sanitizers.."

And every time we read that or hear it--we're obliged to say "if you're going to use a hand sanitizer, why in the world would you choose a product that causes the skin to become dry/irritated (and actually destroys skin cells that protect against bacteria), is flammable, toxic, and while destroying your skin, will also destroy industrial floor wax? Sounds nuts!

But its merely a matter of spreading the word: when spreading on a hand sanitizer--read the ingredients and the product claims and go with an alcohol-free product that is not only proven effective against a wide variety of pesky pathogens (including various strains of Salmonella, as well as MRSA, C.diff, Hepatitis) but is safer and friendlier to the skin-read the ingredients...

We still like the most popular brand on the market (yes, its called Soapopular)--aside from being available at leading retailers, including Wal-Mart and Target, we're told its the #2 hand sanitizer on Amazon.com and also the #5 in the 'antiseptic' category on Amazon.com ..Company execs say that over the past 3 months more than 250 schools across the US now have the product in hand (along with the company's wall mount dispensing systems)..Oxygen Magazine's August 2008 edition (on newsstands now) is the latest health-oriented publication to give this product a thumbs up..