Being Clean Gives You Allergies

I've been telling people this for years, but nobody listens. Now it's official. You neat-freaks are hurting the young generation with your cleanliness obsession.

Anti bacterial wipes here. Germ killing sprays there. It seems the only place that isn't as obsessively clean as a surgical ward these days are the actual surgical wards themselves... But that (and the resultant MRSA) is another story.

We live in a very clean world these days - and it terrifies me!

Now I'm not exactly a slob, but I did grow up on a farm, knee-deep in mud and dachshunds. I probably got exposed to more than my share of germs and bacteria. And you know what? It's done me no harm at all.

I don't have allergies, I don't get hay fever - and aside from mussels, I can pretty much wolf down anything without swelling up like Mr Blobby or hurling it all back up again.

But people like me are becoming a minority. A recent report has revealed that five times as many people these days are effected by allergies than just thirty years ago. And what's the causative factor?

Keeping things clean!

In modern Western society, The Germ has taken on a terrifying mantle, scaring parents and little children like the Bogeyman did a hundred years ago. Television adverts warn us that a plastic chopping board contains as many germs as your toilet seat. Domestos and Clorox adverts proudly boast that they kill 99.9% of germs. Everywhere, we're being told that the secret to long life and happiness is to live in a germ free environment - such as a plastic bubble or a giant tupperware container.

Whereas, this report has revealed the exact opposite.

The human body is a complex thing - rather like the plot of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. As the body grows and develops, antibodies spring up to protect us against viruses and bacteria, while the white blood cells develop tolerance the outside influences (such as pollen) that our body gets exposed to every day.

So, at the same time we're learning in school, our bodies are learning about the environment we live in - and developing defences for the 'Bad Things' and giving hall passes to the 'Harmless Things'.

Schoolkids have school books. The human body has exposure to the outside world. Both are vital in order to properly learn. If children aren't exposed to a variety of outside influences, their immune system isn't developed properly. You end up with kids who swell up at the first sign of daffodils - or drop dead because their body hasn't developed antibodies to protect them from a 'harmless' lurgy.

Germs, bacteria, dirt... It's all a vital part of growing up - and yet a whole generation of mothers are wrapping their kids in plastic and not exposing them to the outside environment. They're worried about little babies briefly getting sick. Instead, they're cursing their children to a lifetime of allergies and weakened immune systems.

There's an old expression in Hampshire: "You've got to eat a peck of dirt before you die."

That's reference to parents exposing their children to dirt and mud, to get them used to the world they live in so they grow up big and strong.

If we continue with our obsessive 'germ phobic' lifestyles, future generations of kids are going to be pale, anemic, sickly little things who get ill from stepping outside the door of their bacteria-free, air conditioned, hermetically sealed homes.

So Mums and Dads. Do your kids a favour. Stick 'em out in the garden and let them get a little dirty.

You can read the "Too Clean?" report here