Having seen yet another manipulative advert for surface cleaners I am beginning to wonder what is it with the UKs seeming obsession with bacteria and dirt? A seemingly large proportion of TV adverts are directed at peoples fear of germs and smells with surface cleaners, hand cleansers, toilet products, body wash and a whole shitload of other chemical warfare type products. Take the latest Dettol advert for example which opens with something like ‘Bacteria can even live in lava so how utterly filthy do you think your kitchen is’?

One possible result of all this cleanliness obsession is the increased rate of allergies in the population, also called the Hygiene Hypothesis :

While there is no definitive evidence for the reason behind the rise in food allergies over the past decade or so, one of the most popular explanations is the “hygiene hypothesis.” The main premise of the hygiene hypothesis is that decreased exposure to germs and other disease-causing substances due to some characteristics of modern Western lifestyles has affected the human immune systems opportunity to develop standard immune responses. Because of this lack of opportunity, the immune system becomes prone to respond by reacting to otherwise harmless substances: In other words, by developing allergies.

Researchers came up with the hygiene hypothesis in an attempt to explain the disparity in patterns of atopic (or allergic) disease between North America and Western Europe and some other parts of the world. The hygiene hypothesis is also put forth to explain why children raised on farms or with pets tend to have fewer allergies than children raised in cities or suburbs, or without pets, respectively.

Add the lack of dirt and pets to industrial levels of anti-bacterial products being used in homes and the end result will probably not be pretty.

Whilst writing this, another article came to mind on the subject of why the middle classes are avoiding the countryside. I cannot recall the original source but we can always rely on the Daily Mail to bring out the salient points :

Middle- class mothers have turned the countryside into a no-go zone for their children because they are worried about them getting dirty, according to research.

They are scared that day trips into the great outdoors could end with their children getting lost, hurt or muddy.

Instead, the study found most middleclass parents limited their excursions to safe country parks and farms that catered for families.

The article is worth a read for the amusement of people not being able to read a map, being scared of the outdoors because farmers shout at them when they go out and get lost due to the aforementioned lack of map skills. Oh, and of course, fear of paedophiles who will obviously be hiding behind every bush ready to leap out and steal little Quentin and Felicity before subjecting them to a rape and torture filled experience ending in their mutilated bodies being stuffed in a ditch (or whatever the current line in Tabloid paedofear is).

All in all, it says a lot for modern life in the UK and doesn’t change my view that we are fundamentally doomed to a bland, state controlled (probably allergic) future.