[potatosoup]

Yeah, many of the comments talk about bacteria, evolution, our immune systems being able to deal with bacteria, and that is all fine and good.

But what about chemicals and cleaning supplies? Eg the floors in a restaurant (and tables, too) get cleaned with some strong chemical products. That's definitely not food grade and no amount of evolving is going to help you deal with that. I see people put their forks, etc, on directly on table surfaces that were previously wiped with a cleaning cloth and I think that's careless. The floor would be even worse.

Eating from your dog is fine and probably has health benefits. Eating from a (chemically cleaned) floor is still not.

[Houshalter]

The dose makes the poison. The amount of lysol residue or whatever that gets on your dropped skittle is tiny. You probably eat it all the time, whenever you touch the table and then your food.

Anyway in general danger of exposure to chemicals is seriously overblown. I love this E.T. Jaynes quote:

>...for virtually every organic substance (such as saccharin or cyclamates), the existence of a finite metabolic rate means that there must exist a finite threshold dose rate, below which the substance is decomposed, eliminated, or chemically altered so rapidly that it causes no ill effects. If this were not true, the human race could never have survived to the present time, in view of all the things we have been eating.

>Indeed, every mouthful of food you and I have ever taken contained many billions of kinds of complex molecules whose structure and physiological effects have never been determined – and many millions of which would be toxic or fatal in large doses. We cannot doubt that we are daily ingesting thousands of substances that are far more dangerous than saccharin – but in amounts that are safe, because they are far below the various thresholds of toxicity. At present, there are hardly any substances, except some common drugs, for which we actually know the threshold.

[drb311]

"I see people put their forks, etc, on tables"

What? If you can't put your forks on the table where can you put them?

I always put my fork on the table, that's what the tables for.

How do you lay your table?!

[nextweek2]

Forks are often wrapped or placed on a napkin you can then lean them against the plate whilst you're eating.

A posh restaurant would have a table cloth that would be cleaned daily with less harmful chemicals.

[donutz]

Wouldn't the napkin be touchin the table then? Or do you ask for a fresh napkin so you don't have to use the one from the table? And ask about the storage of the napkins and silverware, in comparison to any cleaning solutions or other chemicals?

[potatosoup]

Typical setting would be on top of a plate, on top of a napkin, wrapped in a napkin, etc., never directly onto a table surface.

[DanBC]

> Yeah, many of the comments talk about bacteria, evolution, our immune systems being able to deal with bacteria, and that is all fine and good.

It also ignores parasitic worms. People go blind from eg toxocara, which is spread by dog faeces. Only about 700 people per year in the US, but it's avoidable and preventable blindness.

> . I see people put their forks, etc, on tables that were previously wiped with a cleaning cloth and I think that's careless.

The amount of cleaning chemical you're going to eat by putting a fork on a table is tiny, and if that causes harm putting bare forearms on the table is going to be risky too.