Sticky rice - Can you believe this.

[pebble]

ok, thanks. Why would market sellers be safer than anyone else?

[DonHansford]

On the issue of antibacterial handwashes et al:

From betterhealth.vic.gov.au
"Summary:
The overuse of antibacterial products may be producing strains of multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibacterial cleaning products are no more effective at preventing infection than good personal and household hygiene using ordinary soap, warm water and plain detergent."

Also from abc.net.au health & wellbeing section:
" Infectious diseases expert Dr Michael Whitby says no 'reputable research' has found that using antibacterial products to clean surfaces – such as bench tops, bathroom sinks and toilets – will cut sickness. (Much of the research into bacteria in the home is funded by the companies that make the antibacterial products.)

"I'm not saying that inanimate surfaces don't spread disease. What I'm saying is that in the close relationship of a household, a lot of it [disease] is spread person to person, and cleaning the inanimate surfaces with an antibacterial cleaner is not going to help," Whitby says."

And from tga.gov.au (Therapeutic Goods Administration)
"Regulation of antibacterial hand washes:
Question: I would like to import an antibacterial hand wash to sell in Australia. What regulations do I have to meet in order to do this?
Antibacterial hand washes are currently regulated as medicines by the TGA. However, one of the recommendations in the report Regulation of Cosmetic Chemicals: Final Report and Recommendations, published in November 2005 and available on the NICNAS website is that antibacterial skin washes be regulated as cosmetics.

Pending legislative underpinning of these recommendations, interim arrangements are in operation under NICNAS, the cosmetics regulator. This means that businesses introducing an antibacterial skin wash can choose to either remain regulated as a medicine by the TGA or apply to NICNAS under interim arrangements to have the product regulated as a cosmetic. This provision is available for antibacterial skin products other than those used for:
Prevention of the transmission of disease; or
Specifically for use in clinical/surgical settings.
Forms and guidance on interim arrangements, including further explanation of these exclusion criteria, are available on the NICNAS website."

So even the agency tasked with ensuring these things meet some form of standard, aren't quite sure what to classify them as

[Grahame]

I can believe it. It is just another example of how this whole society is Fubar and probably at this point way beyond self-redemption.

I'm not convinced you can fight the system with the system, it's all set up to protect itself. I'm not really that interested in changing the system anyway - I'm more interested in scraping it altogether. It seems to me to have too few redeeming features. Nothing will change until we change ourselves. And we are unlikely to change ourselves - so few ever do.

[pebble]

I feel similarly. If we make small changes in the system, it's still the system that's wrecking the place. I do think it's important that the people with the passion and energy for it make the changes though. It's all important.

[sun burn]

Well yes i think its important to do whatever one can. Changing oneself or trying to is always important. You can ditch the system in your own life but that won't make it go away. No one believes in revolutions and overnight change anymore. Its been tried and seen to result in a worse set up. Its seems to me that the best way to change things is to chip away. I don't know if i've got the strength to do much myself but at least I will consider doing something. If you are interested Graham my point is made by a wonderful book called White Man's Burden by a guy called William Eastman i think that's his name. Its about the Wests efforts to help the rest of the world - What works and what doesn't.

Pebble, why would market sellers be safer than anyone else. Well i think market sellers selling sticky rice would be safe because its unlikely that they would make the stuff much more than a day before the market. The sweets are fresh at the market. The problem with sticky rice could only come form cooking the rice early and keeping it in the fridge too long. Small time jam makers might thin down the fruit quantity in their jams but i can't see what a sticky rice maker would do to ruin their food. I won't by home made jams anymore. I've had too much that's poor quality. Unless i can taste it first that is. The thing is, its always the big producers who are behind these health scares and stories of food poisoning, the odd restaurant also. When people rely on repeat customers they are not going to ruin their product.

Mostly what i say is a belief but its a belief i hold deeply. It seems to me that the women who have the get up and go to make food for markets are usually pretty resourceful and serious and care about what they are doing. I have a friend who used to make things for the markets and now she has her own cafe. When i lived with her i was amazed that she religiously cleaned out her entire fridge every week. Even when i am in my most industrious domestic phases i don't clean out my fridge weekly. But if i was selling food at the markets that i made at home, i very well might do that. Just to be organised.

Now what is all that that Don has posted...I am not sure where antibacterial handwashes came in to the discussion but anyway. I am sometimes shocked when i meet people who start talking about the need to carry around that stuff and wipes and and so on and so forth. I mean i like a clean place as much as anyone but people have gone a bit overboard with hygiene in recent years and to the point of it being unhealthy. I think because i was allowed to play in the muck on the farm that is the reason why i have such good immunity now. One of the reasons anyway. My sister too.

[sun burn]

lol Don. I'd say its neither a medicine or a cosmetic. What do they classify soap as? A cosmetic, then its a cosmetic. If not i reckon it should be classified as whatever soap is. It attempts to do the same thing pretty much doesn't it.

Antibacterial hand washes are meant for situation when you don't have access to soap and water or even jsut water such as when you are camping in Ladakh which is when i found it useful. Otherwise i just take a small bar of soap around with me for handwashing when i am in india that is. I don't need to do that in oz because there's nearly always soap in the bathrooms.

[sun burn]

ACtually pebble the distinction I was trying to make about the sticky rice was that sometimes eateries serve old rice dishes but I can't imagine anyone doing that at a weekly market with sticky rice sweets.