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amazing book?
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and Noble
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Collective. Give the
store this number:
ISBN 978-1-59411-015-3
Price: $16.95
Pages: 294, includes full index and learning guides for parents and
teachers
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(for North America only)
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Turning
It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's
Epidemic Social Problems is available by ordering from
your local
bookstore or by ordering from the major online bookstores.
An ebook version that
may be read on any computer or hand-held device is available for US
$10. Click a Contact button to get it now.
Typical social
(community and personal)
problems addressed by TIA:
violence, drug abuse, alcoholism, other addictions, road rage, office
rage, bullying, homelessness, teenage rebellion, thrill-seeking and
depression, major crime, even illiteracy, high divorce rates and
personal problems that lead to neuroses, bankruptcy or emotional
breakdowns.
Copyright 2003-09 BillAllin.com,
All Rights Reserved
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Current Commentary
Why Coughing Into Your Elbow Is Wrong
You likely grew up, as I did, being told to cover your mouth and nose with your hand when you cough or sneeze. That has changed.
We
are now told to cough or sneeze into the elbow of a sleeve. One
commercial currently on television shows a woman carrying a laundry
basket and coughing into her shoulder. All in the aid of avoiding the
spread of "germs."
Here's
the problem. Rather, a combination of them. Let's begin with the
objective, confining germs that would normally be spread into the air
by coughing or sneezing.
When
you cover your mouth and nose with your hand, you prevent most of what
comes out of them from reaching anyone else. Witness the fact that
sometimes your hand got a bit wet. (I know, the subject is unpleasant,
but the title should have warned you.) When you cough or sneeze into
your sleeve elbow, a good deal of what comes out of your mouth or nose
will miss the fabric.
When
you cover your mouth with your hand to cough or sneeze, you can wash
your hand. You should wash them anyway, several times a day, so that
should not be an imposition. If you have a cold or cough, you can carry
disposable tissues.
When
you cough or sneeze into your sleeve, it's highly unlikely you will
change your clothing until a much later time. What is highly likely is
that you will cough or sneeze again and use the same sleeve. When you
cough or sneeze, the immediate reflex is to inhale to replace the
expelled air. You do that before turning away from your sleeve, which
means that you then inhale your own germs.
The
whole purpose of using disposable tissues rather than the old style
handkerchief was so you could avoid breathing in the same germs you
blew into the handkerchief last time. Most of us got that message:
don't inhale the germs you sneezed or coughed out last time.
As
the saying goes, do the math. Coughing or sneezing into your sleeve
causes as much as 90 percent of germs that may exit your mouth or nose
to escape into the air around you. Always at least 50 percent escapes.
If
you have a colleague who smokes, ask that person to inhale from a
cigarette then blow the smoke back out again into their sleeve, as a
person would when sneezing or coughing. It may shock you how little
smoke sticks to the fabric and how much makes its way into the air. The
example isn't perfect, but it will serve its purpose.
People
in North America were asked to switch from cloth handkerchiefs to
disposable paper tissues a few decades ago to avoid having us breathe
our own germs when we coughed or sneezed into handkerchiefs. The same
thinking still applies.
The
more often a person with a cold or cough expels air into their sleeve,
believing that they are doing right by those around them, the more
people will catch colds and coughs from them. And the more often those
same people may re-infect themselves. The more people get colds and
coughs, the more OTC (over the counter) medications the drug
manufacturers will sell.
When
we learn our health habits from the people who make medicines, we must
understand that these companies have far less interest in our health
than in our cash, their bottom lines.
We
have good reason to believe that coughing or sneezing into our own
sleeves may cause more disease than it avoids. Who wins with that
scenario?
Bill Allin is the author of Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,
an easy to read guidebook for teachers and parents who want to teach
the right lessons to their children at the best possible times to aid
their development. Learn more at http://billallin.com
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social
Problems
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