Seeing the void in this area, I am working on an article and am almost done. When I finish, I will post it here for it to be reviewed. Just wanted to give y'all a heads up :-)

Looking forward to it

Trail Hygiene

By: Brian “Jollies” Klotz, GA->ME ‘03

One of the most often overlooked aspects of trail hiking, which can also be one of the most important, is hygiene. The reason it is so often overlooked is because in everyday life it is so easy to keep clean, so much so that you don’t even think about it when you are doing it. But on the trail, it’s not very often that you come across a sink with some soap or a shower for that matter.

So why is hygiene important? Well, first and foremost, good hygiene keeps you from getting sick. Your skin is your largest organ of your body and it is a great defender against bacteria getting inside your body, the problem is when it leaves your skin to find another transport into your body. Ask yourself this question: When you sit down to eat dinner at home, do you just start eating and not wash your hands? If the answer is no (which it should be), then why would you do anything different while hiking on the trail? Especially with the presence on your hands of suntan lotion or DEET, it is imperative that you wash your hands before touching food you will ingest. There are a few easy ways to keep your hands clean before eating your meals, one of which is to take a little bit of alcohol and rub it between your hands, doing your best to cover all of your hands before it evaporates. There are other soap less hand washes like Germ-X, and they are excellent choices as well. I had a small one ounce bottle that I used before every meal and it lasted about a month worth of time on the trail. If you choose to use a biodegradable soap like Dr. Bronners, remember that washing your hands in a stream with it is not the appropriate use of the soap. Make sure you take some water and pour it over your hands with the soap at least 100 feet from the stream or water source. In a worst case scenario when you don’t have any sort of hand cleaning agent, use copious amounts of water.

So where are you most likely to come into lots of bacteria? Contrary to popular belief, dirt is not your most fearful foe. The biggest risk is after going to the bathroom. Always, always make sure that your hands are clean before coming anywhere near your eyes, nose, or mouth. E-coli bacteria (found in your lower intestine) will make your hike very un-enjoyable should you ingest any, so don’t even let it become a possibility. Sweat is actually a very good conductor of bacteria. Remember back at home when you don’t wash your face after a long day outside and went to bed? You get pimples which are the result of a bacterial infection. The same goes for life on the trail. Although there are no showers at (most) shelters, it is relatively easy to keep yourself reasonably clean. A handkerchief is really all you need for a washcloth and with nice cool water, it makes a great shower. Just soak the handkerchief and wash the key areas. You’ll feel like a million bucks afterwards. Bathing in streams, though not normally condoned, will give you a good cleaning too, just do not use any soap. The main reason for saying that stream bathing is not a good idea is just think about the substances you slather onto your body on a semi-normal day. DEET, Permethrin (on clothing), sun tan lotion, foot powder, baby powder or body-glide, etc. all are not good for stream eco-balance, especially fish or other stream dwellers.

Although foot care is a whole other topic of discussion, some parts of foot care do apply to hygiene. Keeping your feet clean and dry will guarantee a more pleasant hiking experience and will avoid spreading anything one has on to others. There are some nasty foot funguses that love the shoe environment AT hikers put their feet into every day. In 2003, most hikers will remember that it rained for almost an entire month straight, so keeping feet dry was extremely difficult. This is probably why a lot of people turned up with athletes foot and other afflictions. A tip that I was given before my hike was a wonderful relief after each day. First, wash the old feet down with alcohol, and then put on some gold bond medicated foot powder. You will be surprised how good it feels and also what it does to keep your feet more healthy. Whenever you use a shower at a hostel or other frequently used showering facility, make sure you wear sandals or some other form of foot covering. This will prevent you from picking up anything that might be on the shower floor surface.

Your eyes are another focus area of good hygiene. If you use contacts that you take out each evening, consider an alternative in night and day contacts available now. The lower number of times you have to touch your eyes, the less likely you are to get an eye infection that could sideline your hike, and with extended wear contacts, you can lower that to once per month! These new contacts are extremely comfortable, and just a simple blink and clean eye drop in each eye per morning keeps you going all day.

One final area that I think falls partly at least under hygiene is keeping open wounds clean. Open sores like blisters and other cuts and scrapes can easily get infected without proper care, so always make sure to cover them with a bandaid or other bandage and add some anti-bacterial cream like Neosporin. I won’t go into much detail about these issues because it falls a little more closely under first aid.

Hygiene is a very important part of a long distance hike, but can also be very simple if one just gets into good habits. So to review, what are the main points of this article:

1.) Always clean your hands, especially after going to the bathroom.
2.) Wear foot coverings when showering
3.) Wash your body down with a handkerchief to minimize crud buildup
4.) Try extended wear contacts if you use vision correction
5.) Prevent infection in open sores and cuts by keep them covered and clean

Well, I hope this article was helpful to you in some way shape or form and it was my pleasure to write it. Enjoy your hiking experiences wherever they might take you and if you ever do get a chance, go on a thru-hike. It is a life-changing experience!!

Hygiene...what's that?

Just joking...good article! You could maybe mention more strongly why people should never bathe in things that people use for water sources. I saw a couple dumb asses scrubbing down their butt in a stream that is a water source for a shelter (and doing it upstream of the shelter)!

If that's not nasty, I don't know what is.

Brush and floss!

Tip for washing. Take a soda cap and drill holes in it. I use one with my platypus, but if anyone carries soda bottles for water, it ought to work there too. Also handy for washing dishes and with a platypus, can be used for showering.

Practice safe gorping.

Don't let someone put their hand in your gorp bag.

Don't put your hand in someone elses gorp bag.

Good Tips, I will be sure to revise my article with some of these....maybe not the gorp one :rolleyes:

one point that was not addressed is hygiene for the trail. by that i mean leaving the trail sanitary for those who follow. in my section hikes i've noticed that very few hikers carry any sort of a digging implement. not all shelters have privies and i know that you can't always dig a hole with a stick or your walking stick. just covering your leavings with leaves is NOT proper field sanitation.

give some thought to those who will come behind you.

Include the safe GORPing comments. It plugs into the comments of toilet hygiene and hand washing. Safe handling of food is at least as important at water treatment.

Seriously...the gorp thing would be good to include. I think a lot of people that have stomach ailments on the trail don't get them from bad water but from bad sanitation. They take a crap, don't use alcohol sanitizer, stick their hand in gorp and the germs just fester away.

My thoughts:

Proper Cathole technique.

Grey Water considerations.

Food and water sharing prolems (GORP techniques)

I carried a little tub cut from the botton 1/3 of a plastic gallon water container. It is light and the perfect thing to use to wash up in.

A bandana wash down, with a little Dr Bonners, can make you feel a lot better after a long day on the trail. I can also wash my socks and shirt in the tub.

In a pinch it was used to scoop out water, when there was no other way.

I also agree with the gorp comments. I believe alot of hikers get sick and blame the water, when it is bad hygiene that is the culprit.

Wash hands after you handle the shelter register. I seen people plop it down on the goop of nasty surfaces to read and write. The covered cooking spaces at some shelters never get washed off.
pete

I will go along with the sharing food advice. Never take food out of someone else bag to eat. I always bring along wipe ups and antibacterial gel. Yes, more weight but way less infection possibilities. The gel is refilled at mail drops along the way. Worth the extra ounce I pack. Put down a napkin on the table when you fix your meal for your spoon to sit on, and come evening add it to the fire. Your imagination can go wild if you think of what could be on that table you are sitting at. Not worth any kind of disease, Lyme especially.

Good article.

A few more tips: Don't neglect to wash your cookset and eating utensils with soap and hot water at every opportunity. Be leery of eating out of other people's pots or drinking from their water bottles....not everyone's stuff will be as clean as your own. Wash your water bottles (and bags, bladders, etc.) periodically; warm water and a little baking soda works best. If you're using plastic bottles (soda or Gatorade, etc.) either clean them or replace them periodically; when you replace your toothbrush, use i to clean the mung out of the threads of your Nalgenes/bottles before you throw the old brush out. If you use a bandana or pack towel to wipe down your cookpot before storing it away, make sure the towel/cloth is reasonably clean or you'll likely be doing more harm than good. And replace your pot scrubby every now and then, most folks blissfully use scrubbies that look like they've been up someone's ass.

In my considered opinion, most folks don't get sick on the Trail from "bad water." They get sick from bad hygiene, and most of these illnessses are entirely avoidable.

I agree with Jack, I always gave my stuff a good cleaning in town.

Also, on the trail, a little boiling water poured over your toothbrush, spoon and/or water bladder mouthpiece can help, until you get to town.

First of all, thank you all for your valuable input. :clap I have put many of your suggestions into the article. Things I totally forgot about. Here is the second draft:

Trail Hygiene

by Jollies
Last edited 9 August 2005

One of the most often overlooked aspects of trail hiking, which can also be one of the most important, is hygiene. The reason it is so often overlooked is because in everyday life it is so easy to keep clean, so much so that you don’t even think about it when you are doing it. But on the trail, it’s not very often that you come across a sink with some soap or a shower for that matter.

So why is hygiene important? Well, first and foremost, good hygiene keeps you from getting sick. Your skin is your largest organ of your body and it is a great defender against bacteria getting inside your body, the problem is when it leaves your skin to find another transport into your body. Ask yourself this question: When you sit down to eat dinner at home, do you just start eating and not wash your hands? If the answer is no (which it should be), then why would you do anything different while hiking on the trail? Especially with the presence on your hands of suntan lotion or DEET, it is imperative that you wash your hands before touching food you will ingest. Also be careful when sharing food/waterbottles/cooking facilities, as the person whom you are sharing with may not have been as careful as you. There are a few easy ways to keep your hands clean before eating your meals, one of which is to take a little bit of alcohol and rub it between your hands, doing your best to cover all of your hands before it evaporates. There are other soap less hand washes like Germ-X, and they are excellent choices as well. I had a small one ounce bottle that I used before every meal and it lasted about a month worth of time on the trail. If you choose to use a biodegradable soap like Dr. Bronners, remember that washing your hands in a stream with it is not the appropriate use of the soap. Make sure you take some water and pour it over your hands with the soap at least 100 feet from the stream or water source. In a worst case scenario when you don’t have any sort of hand cleaning agent, use copious amounts of water.

So where are you most likely to come into lots of bacteria? Contrary to popular belief, dirt is not your most fearful foe. The biggest risk is after going to the bathroom. Always, always make sure that your hands are clean before coming anywhere near your eyes, nose, or mouth. E-coli bacteria (found in your lower intestine) will make your hike very un-enjoyable should you ingest any, so don’t even let it become a possibility. Also included in this is how to correctly dispose of excrement in the wilderness environment. There were many times that I know of hikers just walking off into the trees and coming back, but they had no shovel! A cathole shovel is something that is not in most hiker’s gear lists, but it really should be. The correct way to take care of your waste is to first dig a hole about a 8 inches deep, do your business, then cover it back over with the dirt you removed from the ground, always making sure you are at least 200 feet from any water source. Contrary to what you may think, it takes a lot longer for the toilet paper you use to break down, than your waste itself, so proper disposal techniques require you to pack out your paper. If you store it in aluminum foil, the smell will be almost completely reduced, especially if you store it further into a ziplock. For women, feminine products should be packed out as well.

Sweat is actually a very good conductor of bacteria. Remember back at home when you don’t wash your face after a long day outside and went to bed? You get pimples which are the result of a bacterial infection. The same goes for life on the trail. Although there are no showers at (most) shelters, it is relatively easy to keep yourself reasonably clean. A handkerchief is really all you need for a washcloth and with nice cool water, it makes a great shower. Just soak the handkerchief and wash the key areas. You’ll feel like a million bucks afterwards. Bathing in streams, though not normally condoned, will give you a good cleaning too, just do not use any soap. A major concern raised by many hikers is bathing in water sources for shelters or campsites. Just ask yourself the question of how you would feel if you saw that going on and knew you had to drink the water some dirty hiker was bathing in! The main reason for saying that stream bathing is not a good idea is just think about the substances you slather onto your body on a semi-normal day. DEET, Permethrin (on clothing), sun tan lotion, foot powder, baby powder or body-glide, etc. all are not good for stream eco-balance, especially fish or other stream dwellers and, as mentioned before, hiker digestive systems 

So what do you do with so called “grey water” or water that you have used to clean yourself, your dishes, or your clothing? Pouring it out behind a shelter or nearby a campsite is a no-no strictly because your grey water attracts animals and other organisms that you really don’t want to meet late at night when they thrive. I learned out in New Mexico with the Boy Scouts at Philmont Scout Ranch that there is such a thing as the “Bearmuda Triangle.” Just like a boat does not want to wander into the real Bermuda Triangle, so do you not want to sleep within the “Bearmuda Triangle.” Quite simply, your campfire circle or cooking area, wherever you keep your food, and where you dispose of your waste water and your bathroom facility (privy, cathole, etc.) form a triangular area wherein animals (especially bears) will wander following the smells you have left behind in your use of the area. Correct practice says that grey water should be disposed of a distance from your campsite and should be scattered in as much of a range of area as one can put it. If you pour it all in one place, animals will dig at it and disrupt the eco-system of the area. As an addendum, washing cooking utensils and pots/pans should be a priority whenever it is possible for you to do so with some soap. Towns are a good place to do this. The same goes for drinking bottles, especially if you use drink mixes. Wash them, or if you use disposable bottles (like Gatorade bottles) switch them out.

Although foot care is a whole other topic of discussion, some parts of foot care do apply to hygiene. Keeping your feet clean and dry will guarantee a more pleasant hiking experience and will avoid spreading anything one has on to others. There are some nasty foot funguses that love the shoe environment AT hikers put their feet into every day. In 2003, most hikers will remember that it rained for almost an entire month straight, so keeping feet dry was extremely difficult. This is probably why a lot of people turned up with athletes’ foot and other afflictions. A tip that I was given before my hike was a wonderful relief after each day. First, wash the old feet down with alcohol, and then put on some gold bond medicated foot powder. You will be surprised how good it feels and also what it does to keep your feet more healthy. Whenever you use a shower at a hostel or other frequently used showering facility, make sure you wear sandals or some other form of foot covering. This will prevent you from picking up anything that might be on the shower floor surface.

Your eyes are another focus area of good hygiene. If you use contacts that you take out each evening, consider an alternative in night and day contacts available now. The lower number of times you have to touch your eyes, the less likely you are to get an eye infection that could sideline your hike, and with extended wear contacts, you can lower that to once per month! These new contacts are extremely comfortable, and just a simple blink and clean eye drop in each eye per morning keeps you going all day.

Probably the most neglected area of hygiene is tooth care. Brushing teeth just like you do at home, although time consuming and messy, will keep your chompers healthy. The same goes with flossing. The cutting down the size of the toothbrush handle trick will reduce the weight of your brush (however insignificant it may be), and small travel toothpastes and floss work well. If you don’t want to carry the brush, just rubbing toothpaste on your teeth will substitute, but won’t get all of the gunk off of your teeth.

One final area that I think falls partly at least under hygiene is keeping open wounds clean. Open sores like blisters and other cuts and scrapes can easily get infected without proper care, so always make sure to cover them with a bandaid or other bandage and add some anti-bacterial cream like Neosporin. I won’t go into much detail about these issues because it falls a little more closely under first aid.

Hygiene is a very important part of a long distance hike, but can also be very simple if one just gets into good habits. So to review, what are the main points of this article:

1.) Always clean your hands, especially after going to the bathroom and correctly bury your solid waste while packing out paper or feminine products.
2.) Correctly dispose of grey water by scattering it a distance from camp
3.) Wear foot coverings when showering
4.) Wash your body down with a handkerchief to minimize crud buildup
5.) Try extended wear contacts if you use vision correction
6.) Brush your teeth and floss
7.) Prevent infection in open sores and cuts by keep them covered and clean


Well, I hope this article was helpful to you in some way shape or form and it was my pleasure to write it. Enjoy your hiking experiences wherever they might take you and if you ever do get a chance, go on a thru-hike. It is a life-changing experience!!

Remember back at home when you don’t wash your face after a long day outside and went to bed? You get pimples which are the result of a bacterial infection. I'm curious about this statement. I don't have this problem and have never heard anyone mention that they did. Does this happen to most people?

Doug

Use your town stops to reestablish super standards...take real scrub down showers, clean every area with soap, twice...wash your hair, twice...wash clothes, incuding the bandana tied to your pack, and the clothing bag...wash your kitchen set, including your spoon....wash and air dry the insoles to your boots...air out your sleeping bag...If you sleep on a pad wash/wipe it off...washand dry your food bag...Oh yea, floss, especially if you have been neglecting it for 5 days on the trail...all of these action will keep you and your gear hike ready....

As an aside, keep a 1 or 2 gallon plastic zip lock in your clothes bag....put the funkies in there, dirty socks, drawers with "stains", don't let your sleep/emergency clothes become suspect....You can use this bag as a pillow , because it will not smell.

If you are out for an extended period you can do laundry in a clothing bag or the baggie ... put in clothes, water, couple drops of Dr Bonners or camp suds, shake thoroughly, empty, add rinse water, repeat, rinse again , hang all to dry.

A word or two about socks...Most wear the same pair for days, ok ...but wash them and let dry at night...at least rinse them...Yes they will often be wet in the morning, that is often true anyway...socks will quickly dry in breathable footgear...or dry from your pack as you hike, all this works best on the three pair system, 1 on, 1 in wash/dry, 1 backup/emergency....strongly recommend changing socks at least once daily, especially in hot weather....try it your feet will love you.

I second the motion on the gorp sharing...no dipping, rather pour into waiting hands...since we are not always 100 % vigilant about ourselves, it is good to form the habit of pouring your gorp into your own hand and not just reaching in with your sweaty, bug repellanted hand....Replacing the gorp bag at each resupply is a good idea too.

Pan

I'm curious about this statement. I don't have this problem and have never heard anyone mention that they did. Does this happen to most people?It can be variable, due to many factors including sweating, testosterone poisoning and cleanliness. Many will get blocked sweat pores/oil glands which will develop into pimples. Some will get infections and severe acne while others maintain pure and pristine baby faces.

YMMV. It remains a bad idea to pick your zits.

In addition to the items Peter Pan mentioned, don't forget to scrub the ol' water filter out, if you carry one.

That is really starting to look good. I would not have thought to mention eye-wear. But I wonder though why you picked extended wear contacts as a corrective eye-wear recommendation when glasses could be easier to manage? They also could offer some eye protection from twigs and such.

That is really starting to look good. I would not have thought to mention eye-wear. But I wonder though why you picked extended wear contacts as a corrective eye-wear recommendation when glasses could be easier to manage? They also could offer some eye protection from twigs and such.Not to mention little noseeums and such that can fly into your eyes and sting like hell... but contacts aren't a problem in rain, slipping off the bridge of your nose, sweat dripping on them, perifial vision etc. It is back to personal preferences, not everybody is going to make the same tradeoffs.

I recommend contacts strictly because there is no hygiene related issues with glasses themselves because you just put them on. With contacts, you have to make sure that your hands are clean when you touch your eyes, otherwise you are a prime candidate for an eye infection. I wore sunglasses all the time with them because of the bright sunlight on most of the trail and most glasses don't offer sun protection.

Understood :D

But I wonder though why you picked extended wear contacts as a corrective eye-wear recommendation when glasses could be easier to manage? They also could offer some eye protection from twigs and such.
This last comment is a really good point in favor of glasses. I almost always wear contacts when hiking, but if I have to bush whack, I like to have my sun glasses on for this very reason. No, they aren't safety glass, but they are better than nothing.

Doug

So what do you think, is this good enough to publish now? I haven't had too many more suggestions since the last revision. Just curious.

You know, I was just looking at this article this morning and thinking the same thing. Normally we give it about a week, but since tomorrow would be a week and I will be leaving tomorrow to spend a couple of days on the road going to a place where I am not sure about Internet access, I thought I might take care of this today and move it over.

cool post. thanks

A good article. I think something should be said about good bugs vs bad bugs,
and natural hygene and materials vs some unnatural hygene practices and products.

It is worth noting that for every human cell in the human body there are 10 cells from other organisms. Of course they are much smaller on average, and vary from viruses, small bacteria, larger but still single celled organisms, and complex mult-celled but still microscoping mites and things. The vast majority of these are friendly. You can overdo hygene, even in the woods. Our bodies are the ecosystems for these friendly organisms and they actively guard their host from unfriendlies, and interact with our systems in many ways, digestion, metabolism, immunity, and they even make us feel good. They are an essential part of keeping our bodies robust and balanced in staying healthy and fighting off disease.

Since there are good bugs and bad bugs, there are also good sources and bad sources. Like most things, the best sources for there friendly organisms are healthy natural sources, like woods and fields and streams. In general, we don't need to protect yourself from the woods. We need to roll around in it more, smell stuff, taste it, eat some dirt, followed by a nice swim in a lake or stream. Do what comes naturally. Be sure and forgo the fetid bug infested swamp, but flourish on the flowering hills and meadows. It may surprise you what place are healthier than others. People that work around Dirt, Dung, and Diapers do surprisingly well compared to people that work around kitchens and hospitals. Again, withing reason Dirt, Dung, and Diapers are good natural sources. Your own child is not likely to make you sick. In fact, changing their diapers is actually more likely to make you healthy. In general, it is best to avoid highly populated areas, because you are far more likely to encounter bad bugs in those places because they can spread from one host to another before the orginal host either wins or loses. Highly populated areas include agricultural sites where animals are kept in close quarters. Highly populated areas are also more likely to have un-natural toxins other than biological ones.

I think the best personal hygene in the woods are those that come most naturally, such as chosing clean sites, fresh water sources, washing regularly with lots of water when it is available and boiling water when it is neccessary. Alcohol based cleaners are also quite natural when you think about it. For years we have lived with yeasts which do their part in eating sugars and creating alcohol which prevents some bad bugs from happening. So some ethanol in our beverages is sometimes a good thing, but washing with it is also something the body is used to for other purposes such as cleaning wounds and also washing up n occassions where water is scarce or there are specific risks for contaminating others or being contaminated by them. Ethyl alcohol is safe, and good practice when hiking around other hikers. However, I would avoid killing too much of the good bugs, either on our skin or in our bodies. Other than lots and lots of clean and often boiling water, and some alcohol wipes and alcohol rinses in moderation, I would avoid taking any extreme and un-natural measures involving unnatural soaps and other modern and un-natural anti-bacterial measures.

Stay healthy. Eat some dirt. Wash it down with some booze. Do it now. :)

On long hikes I bring a small pack of baby wipes to clean my but on those occasions when a little extra cleaning is warranted.

Panzer

What do you do with them baby wipe when your done? I'm not a total leave no trace freak, but I think some stuff does break down better than others. Just curious what exactly they are made of. What's in those baby wipes anyways? I will have to check and see. If its just paper and water and reasonably natural soaps that allow things to break down quickly and natually they might be just the ticket.

Some make your own baby wipe recipes:
http://kanggah.com/cheap/babywipes.htm

You make your own on wet baby wipes the trail if you carried different ingredients for different purposes. From the above recipes, here are some ingredients that could be packed separately in small or large quantitiies for different purposes, but combined to make wet baby wipes or other such things. I only included the ingredients I thought would be most natural and multi-purpose:

water
olive oil or veggie oil of choice
baking soda
toilet paper

vinegar
bio-friendly soap of choice
tea tree oil or essential oil of choice
aloe vera gel
glycerin
lanolin
beeswax
honey
zinc oxide

Also stuff you might make use of from the woods:
essential oils and stuff from coniferous trees
stuff from cadmium layer of deciduous trees
some flowers petals or seed pods maybe
clay, mud - you could boil it first I suppose
wood ash

Careful with the wood ash as it burns, but if you use fine white ash and sprinke it sparingly and add some water and a wee bit of oil it should act as a soap and minor abrasive. If you want to use more than a little I would soak it first and rinse off the lye. You could use the lye for some serious cleaning maybe. Anyhow, the potash that remains is supposed to be safe for baking and even brushing teeth. Since the lye is used for making soap I thought it might be safe to use a little clean wood ash directly on your skin or in your hair or wool sweater with some oil and then rinse it out with warm water.

RE:
essential oils and stuff from coniferous trees
stuff from cadmium layer of deciduous trees
some flowers petals or seed pods maybe
clay, mud - you could boil it first I suppose
wood ash

Wonder if I could setup a natural health spa somewhere on the AT ???
How would you like some Trail Magic ladies, courtesy of JAK ? :D

(With my luck LW would be my first and final customer)

i'm so there dude

OK, but bring your own penis gourd.
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/mud_men.htm
http://www.rhymer.net/New%20Folder/gourdfellahs.htm

OK, but bring your own penis gourd.
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/mud_men.htm
http://www.rhymer.net/New%20Folder/gourdfellahs.htm
Happy endings??:rolleyes:

The comment about E. coli is incorrect; maybe change that to "bacteria and viruses". Although enteropathogenic strains of E. coli have caused some significant disease outbreaks, E. coli is more an indicator organism. Its presence points to fecal contamination which could carry much worse bugs, think typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, etc.

instead of regular toilet paper, cut in two a bounty paper towel roll, it is stronger more absorbent you will use less paper and is more durable too distress in your backpack (and your finger will not poke thru, you know when:D ) !

Sorry, nothing in the article that is new or News. A regurgitation of facts we all learn along the way. Hmmm.:confused:

I don't know man. My wife and I haven't used soap to wash our body in 2years and I am healthy as can be. I use the FULA organic wash cloth found at NEXT TO NATURE website naturetonext.com. It cleans your body without the use of soap. I have been in the backcoutnry w/o soap or hand cleaner many times. Never got sick.

I do agree hand soap is overall a good denfense, but your body naturally has good bacteria that helps you. And, the only reasons bathing with soap is good is that it kills the good with the bad.

"Sweat is actually a very good conductor of bacteria" Your body has a myriad bacteria all over it most of the time. Just like choleserol there is good and bad.
Where did this piece of scientific information originate?

I am certified in Wilderness First Aid. The same goes with cleaning wounds. Run/ pour potable water over the wound to clean it. Iodine and the like should be used in a watered down solution if at all or unless the wound is sevre. The reasons is that it kills the good bacteria that helps your body wound heal. Any Wilderness EMT will tell you the same.

Boiling your pans, utensils, etc. in water will kill any harmful bacteria without soap. If it is not bacterial killing soap it wont do anything anyway. Also, soap is made from LARD(animal fat) and ASHES(LYE). Your campfire ash contains LYE- the fundemental cleaning ingredient in soap. Your ash has cleaning power. Ash water and melted lard, then let it harden. That is soap folks.

I dunno, but I think soap is over rated. I only use handsoap and water if that in my daily life. And, I am a paragon of healthiness.