Health Care I Know, But Whatever Happened to Hygiene?
Posted: Saturday, October 15, 2011
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
"Cleanliness is next to godliness."
For the longest time I thought that was a Bible verse. Finally, I found a biblical passage that may have provided the basis for the missionaries' axiom. The context of that Scripture is a congested community of some two million or so people on the move in the desert. With water shortage being a constant crisis, we can imagine how vulnerable the traveling Israelites must have been to diseases. Infections like cholera and skin diseases would have spread like wildfire throughout the normadic camp. So much care was taken by Moses, the leader, to insure community health, as seen in the following text:
My father became ardently health-conscious. He hated flies, and he washed his hands constantly, and demanded that members of his household do the same.
Dad would be appaled to learn that between 10 percent to 33 percent in the missionaries' home country do not wash their hands after using public or private bathrooms! Even hospitals have to display signs, instructing doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and other employees, as well as patients to wash their hands.
Clean and safe drinking water was another item of health the missionaries stressed. They encouraged Liberians to dig wells, or collect rain water for drinking. Naturally I assumed that upon arrival in the missionaries' homeland my search for clean drinking water would be over.
Few years back a gentleman tested the water in our home, and showed us stuff we were not thrilled about drinking or showering with. These days, you can find the information on the Internet.
The Environmental Working Group's website (ewg.org) features a tool to show what's in your tap water. It shows the water dripping from our kitchen sink in Owensboro, Kentucky has eleven chemicals-pollutants. Good thing is, we stopped drinking this water several years ago. We even learned to use a filter on our shower head for cleaner bathwater.
According to the EPA (cfpub.epa.gov), "If drinking water contains unsafe levels of contaminants, this contaminated water can cause a range of adverse human health effects. Among the potential effects are gastrointestinal illnesses, nervous system or reproductive effects, and chronic diseases such as cancer."
Whilst shoveling poo in a hole and covering it up with dirt was enough to keep Moses and his followers safe in the desert, it is much trickier to get away from the pseudo-clean water, industry-polluted air, hormone-pumped meat, and pesticides-laden fruits and vegetables that we must battle to remain healthy.
The task is daunting, but there is too much at stake to give up. If my health was important enough to American missionaries to risk their lives to teach remote villages in West Africa about hygiene, surely the least I can do is care enough to do what I must to live out the principle, "cleanliness is next to godliness".
For the longest time I thought that was a Bible verse. Finally, I found a biblical passage that may have provided the basis for the missionaries' axiom. The context of that Scripture is a congested community of some two million or so people on the move in the desert. With water shortage being a constant crisis, we can imagine how vulnerable the traveling Israelites must have been to diseases. Infections like cholera and skin diseases would have spread like wildfire throughout the normadic camp. So much care was taken by Moses, the leader, to insure community health, as seen in the following text:
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Deut. 23:10-14, If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp. But it shall be, when evening comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp. "Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.
My father became ardently health-conscious. He hated flies, and he washed his hands constantly, and demanded that members of his household do the same.
Dad would be appaled to learn that between 10 percent to 33 percent in the missionaries' home country do not wash their hands after using public or private bathrooms! Even hospitals have to display signs, instructing doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and other employees, as well as patients to wash their hands.
Clean and safe drinking water was another item of health the missionaries stressed. They encouraged Liberians to dig wells, or collect rain water for drinking. Naturally I assumed that upon arrival in the missionaries' homeland my search for clean drinking water would be over.
Few years back a gentleman tested the water in our home, and showed us stuff we were not thrilled about drinking or showering with. These days, you can find the information on the Internet.
The Environmental Working Group's website (ewg.org) features a tool to show what's in your tap water. It shows the water dripping from our kitchen sink in Owensboro, Kentucky has eleven chemicals-pollutants. Good thing is, we stopped drinking this water several years ago. We even learned to use a filter on our shower head for cleaner bathwater.
According to the EPA (cfpub.epa.gov), "If drinking water contains unsafe levels of contaminants, this contaminated water can cause a range of adverse human health effects. Among the potential effects are gastrointestinal illnesses, nervous system or reproductive effects, and chronic diseases such as cancer."
Whilst shoveling poo in a hole and covering it up with dirt was enough to keep Moses and his followers safe in the desert, it is much trickier to get away from the pseudo-clean water, industry-polluted air, hormone-pumped meat, and pesticides-laden fruits and vegetables that we must battle to remain healthy.
The task is daunting, but there is too much at stake to give up. If my health was important enough to American missionaries to risk their lives to teach remote villages in West Africa about hygiene, surely the least I can do is care enough to do what I must to live out the principle, "cleanliness is next to godliness".
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