Are germs spread by someone licking their fingers to separate papers?

My co-worker constantly licks her fingers to separate pages. Everything she touches, I also have to touch. I find this practice disgusting. Can her germs be spread to me in this manner, since I have to handle the pages also? Am I wrong to worry about this?

Yeah, there was a story where such a habit was used to kill a guy by applying some poison at the corners of pages. That means you too lick your fingers while turning pages. So unless you too lick it the germs will stay on the paper.

Click here to the link

From Unsuck DC Metro

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Seeing somebody lick their finger to turn the page of their paper and place it back on on the metro pole & repeat makes my stomach turn.

Gorjess writes in myLot

Gorjess (974) ranked 1,379 out of 34,226 in people

I hate it when people do this. Ever since working in retail and coming face to face with many people a day I've learned what horrible habits people have! People who lick their fingers nearly always do it when they don't need to. They will lick their fingers to open a carrier bag, but if they'd looked, they'd see I'd already opened it. They lick their fingers to get a credit card out of their wallet, how does this make sense? Surely this would make it harder to pull a shiny card out? They will lick their fingers and give me the spit covered money and expect me to say thank you! They will hold their card in their mouth then take it out and pass it to me, as if they are a baby.. They will hold a note between their teeth and then pass it to me.

I am sick of it, I think it is such bad manners. People spread so many germs by licking their fingers. One customer even licked his fingers then entered a pin on the machine, why was this needed? People who lick their fingers mainly do it because it's their habit. I think it is a bad habit.

My fingers get so dirty at work there is no way I will lick my fingers, I never do it anyway. Someone at my work did it once and a customer complained, no doubt this customer licks their fingers too..

Are you a finger licker?

Click here to follow the discussion

Tyler contributes to the blog Inherently Funny:

Licking Your Fingers Before Turning a Page

Does this work? I do not believe it does.
Funny Things to Do | March 6, 2006 | Tagged Casual, Arrogant
Comments

dude that totally works
múngkee núggəts | March 21, 2007

totally!
bigal | April 16, 2008

it does work! its the static involved!
Shortpurple5 | June 30, 2008

Yeah sure it works, but its a bit gross. Specially if someone is handing a piece of paper to you and does this to it first - hereby ensuring that you cannot touch the saliva covered corner because it suddenly seems like acid! yuk.
Sara | January 6, 2009

Click here to the entry

Stephen G. posted in his Vendor Management Office Blog:

Not too long ago, I was doing a face-to-face contract negotiation with a vendor and we were going through one of my contract templates provision-by-provision. I noticed that the vendor would sort of lick his finger before turning a page of the contract to the next. Some of you might say that the vendor was doing that because it made the page turning easier for him. I don't think that's quite right. I prefer to think that my contract templates are so well done that they're finger lickin' good! In fact, if you don't believe me, download my free contract templates--they're easy to adapt for your own use--and taste for yourself...

Click here to his post

Dr. Flash Gordon writes in a CNN Health Q&A article:

If you then touch the corner of your eye, or lick your finger before turning a page, or open and unwrap a piece of chewing gum and eat it, you've just put those germs into your system. If you don't wash your hands after touching "public objects" and before touching your face or food, you've essentially licked everything you've touched since the last time you washed.

Click here for link to the article.

Tim writes in his Retail Blog

Today I had a few spitters. They're actually fairly common; you may be one yourself. It's the people who lick their thumb or finger to separate two pieces of paper. This one woman was having trouble separating the credit card receipt after signing it so she stuck her thumb in her mouth and slicked it up with about an ounce of saliva. Then she used it to separate the two pieces of paper and, oblivious to the look of horror on my face, tried to hand me the store copy. No offense to anyone who does it but I'm not down with someone handing me their sopping wet receipt to file. It seems even worse to do it to money. I'll be standing there waiting for someone to count off a few bills from their wallet and suddenly the finger darts to the tongue, then back to the cash. Haven't they heard that four out of five bills have traces of cocaine, urine or feces on them? Small amounts to be sure, but I'm still not down with the moist art of the Finger-licking Paper-separation Maneuver.

Clink link to his blog entry

David Hanney writes in BootsnAll

Health

We have spent over 50 days in Bali now over the past three years and have not been sick once. Several years ago the expression "Bali Belly" had more meaning, as the eating-places had not caught up with basic hygiene good practices.

The basic rules are these: -

...

Avoid licking your fingers after handling money - I guess that applies anywhere in the world.

...

Click here to go to his article

Josh L. posts in his blog, Daily Encounters with the World

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dirty Money + Licking your fingers = Unhappy person receiving your money

Do you lick your fingers while you eat? Personally I do and watching other people do so doesn't bother me whatsoever. What does bother me is when people are about to give me some money and they lick their fingers to separate the bills. Do they not realize that I have to touch that money? I know money is dirty anyways, but to add somebody else's saliva is a whole new story. Maybe you've never thought about this before, but after reading this little post you may be surprised at how many people actually do this. If you're one of these people that lick your fingers to separate money or turn pages in a magazine or book please do the world a favor and STOP!

Click link to his blog post

Catherine Guthrie writes in Oprah Magazine, Saliva Heals Cuts Faster. This maybe the only time good time to lick your finger. But make sure you wash it clean first.

Saliva Heals Cuts Faster
By Catherine Guthrie

Photo: J Muckle/Studio D

Go ahead: Lick your wounds. Your salivary glands are generating loads of curative compounds every day.

If you've ever cut your finger, your first impulse was probably to stick it in your mouth. That instinct serves you better than you might realize. Human saliva, it seems, speeds up wound healing.

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands bathed injured skin in saliva or a saltwater solution. Sixteen hours later, they compared the samples and found that the cut treated with saliva had healed 30 percent faster.

The finding wasn't a complete surprise; saliva contains more than 200 compounds, many of which have, in previous research, proved capable of preventing cavities, fighting fungi, and even protecting against HIV transmission. Yet the Dutch researchers did uncover something new: Although they assumed growth hormones were responsible for the accelerated healing time, the catalysts were actually proteins called histatins.

"We stumbled upon the discovery," says Menno Oudhoff, the study's lead investigator. "It's a surprising finding." One reason for Oudhoff's excitement is that histatins are easier to synthesize in the lab than growth hormones, and they can be mass-produced cheaply. Which means histatin-infused products such as bandages, creams, and gauze could be available within a decade.

Click link to site