Free Republic

Since the fourth millennium BCE, when urban civilizations first appeared in ancient Mesopotamia, humans have strived to achieve proper dental hygiene. Yet the nylon-bristled toothbrush we use today didn’t come along until the 1930s. For the thousands of years in between, people relied on rudimentary tools that evolved with scientific knowledge and technological advancements over time. Some of the earliest toothbrush predecessors date as far back as 3500 BCE. Here’s a look at how people kept their teeth clean before the modern toothbrush.AdvertisementChew Sticks and ToothpicksSometime around the year 3500 BCE, the ancient Babylonians (located near modern-day Iraq) created a...

“Sometimes with my roommates home, I'll, like, turn the water on because I'm like, I don't want them to think I'm, like, disgusting.”“Did you wash your hands when you were little?” asked Alex Bennett, cohost of Mean Girl, a Barstool Sports podcast about sex, relationships, and adulthood, during an episode released last week. “I’m sure I did because I was forced … but then I made the conscious decision to stop washing my hands I think when I was in college,” replied Jordyn Woodruff, cohost of the podcast. In fact, she said that between the hours of 10 a.m. and...

A Florida man was bitten in the arm by an alligator Thursday while washing his hands in a pond, according to the City of Sanibel. Fortunately, the man was able to break free from the alligator and call 911. People on the scene of the attack applied a tourniquet until EMS workers arrived, officials said in a statement. He sustained a serious injury on his right arm and was transported to the hospital for treatment, according to officials. Florida Fish and Wildlife along with the Florida State trapper are actively attempting to capture the alligator at the pond. There have...

Several pathogenic microbes were identified and quantified on masks worn during the pandemic, according to a Japanese study that was published in Scientific Reports. The study is one of the first to address the probable hygiene issues caused by bacterial and fungal growth on masks worn daily in the community. “Since masks can be a direct source of infection to the respiratory tract, digestive tract, and skin, it is crucial to maintain their hygiene to prevent bacterial and fungal infections that can exacerbate COVID-19,” the authors wrote. The study involved 109 participants aged 21 to 22 years who were asked...

A flight out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York made an emergency landing over the weekend after an unruly, foul-smelling passenger refused to wear a mask, snorted a white powder, groped a woman and, to top it all off, uttered racial slurs, according to reports. The suspect was taken into custody when the JetBlue flight to San Francisco made an unscheduled landing in Minneapolis late Sunday afternoon. The 42-year-old passenger, who lives in upstate New York, was charged with drug possession, according to reports. His name was not immediately released.

COVID-19 has reawakened America’s spirit of misdirected anxiety, inspiring businesses and families to obsess over risk-reduction rituals that make us feel safer but don’t actually do much to reduce risk—even as more dangerous activities are still allowed. This is hygiene theater.

I have arrived at the age where the eyes and hands don't fully cooperate like they use to! (Doesn't help that I am blind in one eye either) Well anyway, I am wanting, (needing) to give up the standard razor and move to an electric. I've had electrics in the past (norelco, panasonic ..) but none of them worked very well! Reading up on the topic, I'd say that the 'rotating head' rather than the foil head would be preferable. I would like some recommendations from any long time users if you don't mind? Not having a lot of money...

The first nine coronavirus deaths in the U.S. show the biggest risks are not traveling internationally, riding mass transit or attending a crowded event. The most dangerous place to be is in a rehab or nursing home. The second-most dangerous is a hospital. Five residents of the Life Care Center, a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, have died, and some 50 other residents and staff members there reportedly have coronavirus symptoms. Be on the alert for more deadly outbreaks in nursing homes wherever coronavirus, now dubbed COVID-19, spreads. Nursing homes are infection cauldrons. Most nursing facilities ignore precautions like separating...

Mini Mike, don’t lick your dirty fingers. Both unsanitary and dangerous to others and yourself! pic.twitter.com/LsKLZNeZL9— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020

Coronavirus panic has anxious New Yorkers swarming drugstores and supermarkets for germ-killers. And with public-health specialists stressing the importance of keeping your hands clean during a viral outbreak, hand soaps and sanitizers are flying off the shelves. SNIP “From what we know about this coronavirus, it’s similar to [previous epidemics of] SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] and MERS [Middle East respiratory syndrome], so it should not be that difficult of a microorganism to kill,” Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, medical director of the special pathogens unit at Boston Medical Center, tells The Post. “Soap and water, and alcohol-based hand sanitizers, can kill...

A third of French people don’t wash their hands after going to the toilet and less than half before eating, while a fifth of Frenchmen change their underwear twice a week at best. These are some of the unsavoury findings of a new study into personal hygiene in France, which researchers and Gallic doctors say leaves a lot to be desired. The findings stand to reinforce stereotypes that the French take a laisser-faire approach to cleanliness. The survey by pollster Ifop found the French continued to display “ignorance of basic sanitary rules, despite public health messages and the current [coronavirus]...

Tokyo — The latest must-have product to take Japan by storm isn't high-tech and it certainly isn't garnering rave reviews in glossy design magazines. The country where electronically controlled, heated, bidet-accessorized, high-tech toilets are commonplace has in fact made another contribution to lavatory luxury. High-end toilet paper is rolling off the shelves. So what's convinced Japanese consumers to fork out more than $12 per roll? It started five years ago in the sleepy paper-making town of Tosa, on Japan's southwestern island of Shikoku. The aging owner of an obscure, family-run paper company called Mochitsuki Seishi was troubled by sensitive skin...

David Whitlock has not showered or bathed for 15 years, yet he does not have body odour. “It was kind of strange for the first few months, but after that I stopped missing it,” he says. “If I get a specific part of my body dirty, then I’ll wash that specific part” – but never with soap. As well as germs, soap gets rid of the skin’s protective oils and alters its pH level. Although Whitlock appreciated gaining an extra 15 minutes a day from soap-dodging, his primary motivation was to encourage friendly microbes to live on him in symbiotic...

Working on a complex issue often takes creativity. When it’s an issue like homelessness, every angle is worth exploring. So when the nonprofit Oroville Southside Community Improvement Association Inc. asked to partner with the city on its Haven of Hope on Wheels project, which includes a trailer outfitted with showers, toilets and laundry facilities, the Oroville City Council obliged. The council sensibly saw the project for what it is — another way to help the disenfranchised while keeping them from disrupting businesses or taking baths, doing laundry and going to the bathroom along rivers and in parks. The council voted...

You know how good a cool shower feels when you come home from a long, sweaty run? Well that shampoo and body wash you love so much could be costing you more if you’re using products marketed towards women—a price discrimination commonly referred to as the “pink tax.” Research confirms this is a real thing. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) compared the cost of various products sold throughout New York City and found a stark difference between the cost of products marketed to men and those marketed to women. And a 2010 Consumer Reports study found...

Woman almost loses leg after infection, disease blamed on pedicure NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The infection that a North Carolina woman contracted at a 'grade A salon' urged her to issue a warning to other pedicure lovers. According to a Facebook post, on June 22 Tracy Lynn Martinez went to get a pedicure at her local salon in Winston, North Carolina. The next day, she said that she had body chills, nausea, and dizziness. She tried to sleep it off but when she woke up her leg had swollen to three times its size. Martinez called an ambulance and shortly...

Diversey, a leading global provider of cleaning and hygiene solutions, will locate its new 100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters at the Lakemont Business Park in York County, SC. An additional 18,500 square feet of lab space will also be created to develop cutting-edge technology for cleaning and hygiene operations. The project is expected to result in $6.1 million in investment and approximately 400 jobs. “I am extremely proud of building Diversey’s new global headquarters in York County, which will become the new home for our employees and their families,” said Diversey President and CEO Ilham Kadri. “Our new state-of-the-art campus will provide...

Councilman Larry Gossett bristled at a request for funds to clean human excrement from Seattle’s city streets near the Third Street courthouse, calling it “racist. It’s all part of a pattern of disrespect toward the minority community.” The request for $8,000 to pay for the cleaning came from King County Sheriff John Urquhart who complained that “public defecation is only part of the problem. The homeless denizens of the area have been assaulting and harassing citizens reporting for jury duty. The jurors are asking judges to excuse them because they’re afraid to come to the courthouse.” Gossett insisted that “putting...

India's government has been on a public toilet building spree. Now, it's trying to shame people into using them. An aggressive new campaign ridicules those who are no longer poor but continue to defecate in the open — a practice that remains common in rural India despite its growing wealth and trappings of modern life. Television commercials and billboards now carry a message that strike at the heart of the Indian contradiction of being the world’s fastest-growing major economy and also where relieving oneself in the open is the norm in most villages.

Brown University's student body president will be hand-delivering menstrual products into all nonresidential bathrooms with the help of 20 other students as classes begin this week, and, as of this fall, New York City public school students will provide free tampons and pads in all school buildings with sixth through 12th graders. [Snip] "There's been a lot of conversation about why pads and tampons are a necessity, not a luxury, but not a lot of action. We wanted to take it into our own hands," says Nguyen, a senior studying education policy. "Low-income students struggle with having the necessary funding...