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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics

At 82, I’m completely at home with bacteria

Blake Morrison Bacteria Bayeux
House cleaning products on a wooden table
One reader questions whether sterilising every surface is necessary. Photograph: Tatomm/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Regarding the article on bacteria in homes (Is your home a health hazard? 15 surprisingly filthy everyday items, from taps to toothbrushes, 17 July), I have managed to live to the age of 82 without ever putting a cutting board in the dishwasher, or sterilising light switches, the TV remote or my spectacles. I do boil the dishcloth every couple of weeks and that’s it. We have lived with these bacteria for millennia. Is there any evidence that sterilising every surface would do anything other than increase paranoia?
Owen Wells
Ilkley, West Yorkshire

• Adrian Chiles, trying to sleep in the heat of the Croatian summer, should use a canny old Australian trick: keep your pyjamas in the freezer until bedtime (I’ve found the cure for a sleepless night in a heatwave – but it can have its drawbacks…, 17 July). Bliss!
Liz Taylor
West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire

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