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

Updated States of America

Tina and I are doing well over here.

The rainy weather vanished and was replaced by blazing sun and temperatures comfortably in the eighties. New Jersey had never looked prettier, with the crop fields shimmering in the heat and the trees beautifully green.

Yesterday gave the illusion of progress, but in fact Tina and I didn't get that much accomplished. We saw our new apartment, which is in the middle of being gutted and won't be ready for another week or so. It's a lovely little redbrick townhouse opposite a school. The bricks themselves were carted over from New York City at the turn of the 20th century to make this house and the one next to it. With it's slate roof and brick walls, it looks very different from the traditional wooden and Cape Cod houses New Jersey is more famous for.

The apartment is in a quiet residential cul de sac opposite a school. It's a few miles away from the city of New Brunswick, which is delightful.

New Brunswick is actually quite a big place. With lots of modern buildings amongst the old ones, neat little bars and a pretty theatre district, it reminded me a bit of downtown Montreal. I think it's a really nice place to live near and seemed safe and clean (although the News 12 Team reported a cop getting shot there last night.)

Aside from getting to know our surroundings, however, Tina and I were foiled in our attempts to get Driver's Licences and mobile phones... That's today's plan - and involves a trip to slightly less glamorous Staten Island, New York.

One good bit of news is that I have a job interview tomorrow and my brother in law has used his contacts to get my resume in front of some advertising agencies in Manhattan.

Watch this space!

Being back in America is great, if a little disorientating. I can't get over just how many cars there are here. There are cars everywhere. You drive past houses with four, five... six cars parked in the driveway. Considering the speed limit on New Jersey's twisty little roads is a conservative 35 mph, you don't drive so much as shuffle along like a trail of gigantic metal ants.

With brand new babies in their homes, both sets of in laws are very protective and insist on us using anti-bacterial hand lotion and showering before we're near the babies. It's a bit different to how things are in England, when you'll often see women carrying their week old bairns through the supermarkets. Tina and I are being very observant of the rules, though. Perhaps we Brits might think the antiseptic routine is a little excessive, but look what all our clever little European bacteria did to the Native Americans when Columbus washed up on their shores.

They're very small little details, but they serve as a constant reminder than I'm not in Kansas any more. But to be honest? Right now, I couldn't be happier.

More news as and when it happens.