Todays topic: ‘modern society’s increasing obsession with home hygiene’. Do we really need to kill all known germs? Are we forgetting that bacteria and germs are very much a part of what we are, and that our immune system is perfectly capable of dealing with them (all the ones that are usually found in homes anyway)? I read somewhere that those people who obsessively keep their houses pristine and finely dusted are more likely to get ill when they are abroad. I don’t really know whether this is really true or not, but I like to think it is because it serves them right. I mean people who keep their homes perfectly clean and tidy aren’t normal - a home is there to be lived in, and if other things live there too then so be it… the more the merrier, that’s what I say.

[http://salon.com/health/feature/2000/05/03/

germ_warfare/index.html](http://salon.com/health/feature/2000/05/03/germ_warfare/index.html)