The great unwashed

Are we, the public, too clean for our own good? Has the term “the great unwashed” fallen forever by the wayside? Would greater exposure to bacteria and germs give us stronger immune systems? These questions came to mind after the release of yet another study showing that farm kids are 30 to 50 percent less likely than town or city kids to develop asthma.
Yes, it’s one more reason to applaud the farming life.
According to a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, household dust in a farm environment has a greater variety of bacteria and fungi. And human bodies require some of these to function properly. Precisely how germs and bacteria interact with people and their immune systems is another question, but the statistics relative to the farm population remain valid.

Tim McAllister, a researcher in ruminant nutrition and microbiology at the Agriculture Canada research centre in Lethbridge, mentioned the topic briefly following a presentation this spring. He was talking about E. coli, but the same basic idea of superior farm kid resistance also applies.
“There’s a large component of microbiologists that are going more towards the ‘we’re too clean’ theory, that we’re not exposed enough to microbes,” said McAllister. “Our immune systems don’t develop properly and as a result we become more susceptible.”
Visits by urban children to petting zoos often result in illnesses. This is why we now see those hand sanitizers sitting outside petting zoos and trade show booths involving farm animals. Kids raised without frequent exposure to animals apparently don’t have immunity to certain germs so a few trips to petting zoos are not going to do the trick as far as immunity development.

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According to the Journal, exposure is needed at an early age and it wouldn’t hurt if your mother or grandmother were also a farm kid, thus able to pass on some type of immunity. In fact, that generational link might explain why asthma rates began increasing relatively recently even though the farm population has been shrinking for decades.
Statistics Canada says one in 10 children suffer from some type of respiratory condition. That’s a lot.
One sort of hesitates to crow about greater exposure to germs. Hooray, it’s dirty around here? That’s not something to celebrate. It’s not as though farm folk are any dirtier than urban folk, or any less cognizant of health dangers associated with germs and bacteria. In my experience, however, farm dwellers do find themselves in situations where quick washes are impossible or impractical. If you get splashed with manure in the corral or eat a spray of grain dust while on the combine, you’re going to have to live with it until you get near a place with running water. That could take awhile.
And let’s face it — there are greater challenges in keeping the house clean when you’ve got people tramping in with livestock hair, manure, soil, fertilizer, seeds, chaff and all kinds of other stuff clinging to their bodies and clothes.
Instead of fretting about it, we might as well embrace it. And be healthier for it.