Report : Report + article: hard copy Article Source: Suggestions of sources for
ID: 132433 • Letter: R
Question
Report : Report + article: hard copy
Article Source:
Suggestions of sources for choosing your article: (you may get your article from a source NOT on this list if it meets the article requirements)
New York Times (newspaper)
The Washington Post (newspaper)
USA Today (newspaper)
Tennessean (newspaper)
Newsweek (magazine)
TIME (magazine)
Discover (magazine)
National Geographic (magazine)
Today’s Science (access through NSCC Library – news articles written for students)
Article Requirements:
Report Format:
Report Requirements: (your report should address ALL of the following sections)
Explanation / Answer
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/06/11/kitchen-towel-bacteria-may-lead-food-poisoning-study/690091002/
Original title: Your kitchen towels could give you food poisoning, study suggests
Name: Due date:
Title: Neglected kitchen towels may act as the potential food poisoning agents
New research suggests our kitchen towels hold on to a lot of gross stuff. A study presented at the annual meeting for the American Society for Microbiology, which concludes Monday, found the towels could carry pathogens potentially leading to food poisoning. Multiple factors contribute to an increase in bacteria found on towels, including family size and the type of food consumed.
Researchers collected 100 towels after one month of use. Results showed 49% of them had bacterial growth. Those numbers increased when other factors were considered, including using towels for multiple purposes. Research showed the risk of towels contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli was higher on humid towels, multi-purpose towels, and in families with non-vegetarian diets. "The data indicated that unhygienic practices while handling non-vegetarian food could be common in the kitchen," said lead author Dr. Susheela D. Biranjia-Hurdoyal, a senior lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Mauritius, in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends these steps to avoid catching food poisoning through your kitchen towel:
Wash your hands. USDA suggests washing hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds, whether it's before you cook or after handling raw meat and its packaging.
Use paper towels once. The more you use a paper towel, the higher the odds germs spread. Use it, then toss it immediately.
For cloth towels, wash them often. USDA said washing dish towels on the hot cycle of your washing machine will remove bacteria. Also, keep multiple dish towels handy to avoid too much reuse.
Report Requirements: (your report should address ALL of the following sections)
1. Summarize the article in your own words (3 to 6 sentences)
Kitchen towels and napkins can be potential contaminates and may act as food poisoning agents. Its recommended to clean them very often and recommended to use paper towels just once. It reminds us of habitual negligence and its effects on our life.
2. Why did you find this article interesting?
Because kitchen towels we use intermittently or very often or unknowingly as part of habit to wipe our hands or our body secretions and forget to wash weeks together are potential food and moisture laden entities for the growth of various microbes and may contaminate us
3. How does the article apply to microbiology class? (give FOUR SPECIFIC examples of how the article relates to topics discussed in lecture and/or lab) Give adequate explanations
This article teaches us how simple things which we neglect either in kitchen or lab are potential contaminants. For example in the microbiology lab, if we forget to sterilize or treat with a biocide very often our lab coats or lab shoe and our work stations (some media may get spilled on them) may act as potential contaminants both for working people and our experiment.
From this article we can learn the importance of maintaining sterility, keeping clean the lab environment, using and disposing paper towels in the lab etc. Overall it teaches or makes us remember good lab practices.
We can relate the nonvegetarian food to rich media used in the lab as a potential contaminat both for humans and cross contamination in the microbiology lab. Cross contamination is disastrous if we are working with single microbe systems.
This article reminds us and recommends frequent hand cleaning, this can be applied in the lab, before working or entering in the microbiology lab or while handling different kinds of microbes, each time frequent hand sterilisation with alcohol or any biocidal agent is must.
4. How did microbiology class help you understand the article? (give FOUR SPECIFIC examples) Give adequate explanations
Microbiology class helped to understand the importance of sterility, potential neglected things acting as contaminating agents, how alert we should be with our habits while working with the microbes.
From the article realized/understood the importance of habits and casual negligence which we usually have.
This article prompted me to read and understand USDA guidelines of how to avoid food contamination and poisoning.
Importance of sterility, if we forget to sterilize laminar hood, what could be the potential contaminants can be studied.
If we don’t empty or keep clean our work station dust bins what could be the potential contaminants and its effect on our work.
5. What are AT LEAST two questions that YOU had while reading the article that were not answered in the article? (Do not use questions the article mentions. Come up with your own
Does anybody doesn’t wash their kitchen towels for one month? Authors could have collected just one week old unwashed towels for their experiment.
They could have tried and compared difference between hot water washing cycles and cold water washing cycles.