Not wearing gloves while dumping tanks?

[Neal]

Pleading no contest...

Not wearing gloves while dumping? Big mistake!

In this day of fastidiousness and the injection of antibacterial chemicals in nearly every product, there's a strange movement out there: Dumping holding tanks

www.rvtravel.com

 

[Rich W.]

That article makes some assumptions and leaves out some important information. I don’t wear gloves when dumping but I have a very clean method. And I have paper towels, bio-soap, and wipes in the wet bay for immediate clean-up if necessary. Also having been a medic, and having spent around five years in the back of ambulances with all manner if infected body fluids, and another 20 on a paramedic engine, I understand sterile technique.

I would never advise people not to wear gloves, or not to engage in any ofher safety precaution, but unless the wearer has had training in properly removing contaminate gloves, they run the same risks of exposure taking them off as they would not wearing them. That said open wounds do indicate a need for barrier protection. The comment about eyes pertains to splash protection, not gloves so that’s a little out in left field.

I always wash up after dumping, and I have gloves available for both dumping and fueling, and use them both when I see the need, which is rarely. But its nice to have stuff handy when a need arises. There are probably videos on properly removing contaminated gloves on you-tube and the recommendation I will make is that if one is going to use gloves for barrier protection against nasty stuff, learn to take them off without becoming contaminated.

My feeling is that its better to develop a clean method that prevents contamination and then wash up anyway as if you were contaminated. Also (and slightly off topic) I do not store the slinky in the wet bay. I think that practice poses a much greater risk of contamination.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Pleading no contest...

Not wearing gloves while dumping? Big mistake!

In this day of fastidiousness and the injection of antibacterial chemicals in nearly every product, there's a strange movement out there: Dumping holding tanks

www.rvtravel.com

Good copy! Instill fear so you can help fill up the land fill! Oh that's right, the name makes that ok.

 

[Dan_Frisbie]

I don’t wear gloves when dumping, either.
I do it as cleanly as possible and touch anything as little as possible. I also clean up after and use Lysol spray on the handles and inside the bay.

We are continuing to protect ourselves from everything and our immune system as a society is already in trouble. Without exposing ourselves to germs, we are doomed because we have no weapons in the fight during an emergency.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

I don’t wear gloves when dumping, either.
I do it as cleanly as possible and touch anything as little as possible. I also clean up after and use Lysol spray on the handles and inside the bay.

We are continuing to protect ourselves from everything and our immune system as a society is already in trouble. Without exposing ourselves to germs, we are doomed because we have no weapons in the fight during an emergency.

Dan you forgot the most important point. " you can't contract a pathogen that is already in you!!!" Common sense is not so common anymore, is it?

 

[jaydee325]

I wear gloves. It's not me I'm trying to protect myself from, it's the other ignorant/inconsiderate people who also use the dump stations.

At home cleaning bathrooms, I don't wear gloves and use the methods Rich W describes.

A 38 year career in the nuclear power industry taught me how to don and remove anti contamination gear and how contamination is spread.

To each their own.

 

[RandyB]

What I don't understand is the glove wearers that handle a supposed contaminated object then touch their body with the then-contaminated glove. Makes no sense. Touch sewage, then wipe their forehead or wipe their nose with the same glove. DUH!

 

[LMHS]

I think one should do what they are comfortable with. I have dumped with and without gloves (and I'm a GIIIRRRLL). I figured that I never wore gloves when I changed my kids diapers, then I can survive neatly and carefully handling the sewer hose while gloveless. My sewer hose is in two parts and capped on both ends. The tricky part is getting the cap off the camper's sewer outlet and catching the inevitable "dribble" that always seems to be there before it drips out. I mostly wear gloves to keep the dirt down and depends on what the dump station looks like. The dump valves on the camper are exposed to to road and gets a bit filthy from road grime. I live in an area with lots of dairy farms and they haul semi-raw manure to all the local fields in open semi trailers. It's all over our highways. I've seen some dump stations that I refused to use because they were too messy (had one of those "no hose" dumpers use it). Plus I wash my hands with soap and water because I also pour a dose of liquid dishwasher detergent down the sink and into the toilet after dumping and add water from the so-called "fresh" tank (that we NEVER drink or cook with). Last time I wore gloves to dump, time before I didn't because we were only dumping clean grey water used to test the plumbing after replacing a fair amount of the grey plumbing pipe. All the pull handles had been cleaned and greased while doing the work.

For those of you who go "eeewwww", I have to ask, do you wear gloves when you open the lid to toss your garbage into a dumpster or trash bin? If you don't, then maybe you should think about it. Those are really nasty and covered in fly "poop" or fly vomit, which ever term for the same thing that you prefer, the latter being more accurate.

BTW, NM state rest areas tend to not have water for hand washing. They do have bottle of hand sanitizer which is NOT a suitable replacement for hand washing. Also, the amount of adults who do NOT wash their hands at all after going to the toilets in NM and many other states is downright disgusting.

My daughter and I have a theory that the non-hand washers also don't use their turn indicators when driving. Involves the same lack of consideration for others.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Pleading no contest...

Not wearing gloves while dumping? Big mistake!

In this day of fastidiousness and the injection of antibacterial chemicals in nearly every product, there's a strange movement out there: Dumping holding tanks

www.rvtravel.com

I will plead the 5th…

 

[Rich W.]

What I don't understand is the glove wearers that handle a supposed contaminated object then touch their body with the then-contaminated glove. Makes no sense. Touch sewage, then wipe their forehead or wipe their nose with the same glove. DUH!

Countless times I watched a medic glove up, handle a patient, open an IV bag with said gloved hands, and then hold the IV bag with his/her TEETH, Really. I always stopped them and they usually seemed a bit surprised that they even did it - just one of those times you need a third hand during an emergency. People put on gloves and feel protected but if you’re going to use them, it takes a little more than that.

 

[Jim]

All good points to consider. @Neal said that he almost always puts his sandwich down first. . .

 

[AbdRahim]

No gloves here anymore. I have disinfectant spray, and wipes in wet bay. When I arrive I spray everything, spigot, sewer cap, spigot handle, even inside the spigot, etc. with disinfectant. Mine is a no poop tank, so no worries there. I pull the sewer cap with a disinfectant wipe. All of my hardware has been disinfected before leaving the last destination. When I pack up, I repeat the process. I also have disposable washclothes in the wet bay, so my hands are cleansed and bay door, and washed with soap and running water when I get inside.

What I don't do anymore is shake hands. After over half a century on the road, I am shocked at how many people leave the stall, after #2, and never wash their hands.

 

[J&JD]

I was in the industrial food plant sanitation business for 40+ years selling food grade detergents and sanitizers. Many of the plants stopped requiring their workers to wear gloves when they found cross contamination was not stopped by the gloves but by proper training of the personnel. Gloves, no gloves, proper hygiene by the personnel when moving from one task to the other (using the restroom or picking up items from the floor for instance) was the best way to prevent contamination. I do not wear gloves for tasks around the wet bay or for water/sewer hookups but I follow a strict sanitizing and washing procedure from which I never deviate.

 

[mjeds]

um all I can say is ewe..


I use a rake and scooper for my dog feces, and I won't even do that without gloves (and sometime a mask cause DAMN, my doggos poop can stink at times).

 

[Rollin Ollen]

Pleading no contest...

Not wearing gloves while dumping? Big mistake!

In this day of fastidiousness and the injection of antibacterial chemicals in nearly every product, there's a strange movement out there: Dumping holding tanks

www.rvtravel.com

I rarely wear gloves but I am one of those people that DOES wash my hands often. I am also the guy that uses the paper towel that I used to dry my hands with that also is used to open a public washroom door (and if there is no trash receptacle near by the paper hits the floor).

I have a spray bottle with diluted bleach that I use on anything I have to touch at the dump station. I take my time to make sure my hose fittings are secure before I pull the valves so there is no leakage. When I am done, my equipment is thoroughly rinsed and given a quick spray with my bleach solution. I have a hand wash in the wet bay that I use when finished. Gloves just get in my way.

Darrell

 

[Rich W.]

. The tricky part is getting the cap off the camper's sewer outlet and catching the inevitable "dribble" that always seems to be there before it drips out.

I used to have this problem and thought I’d have to replace the black tank valve, but I started backwashing the black valve surfaces by leaving the black valve open for a few seconds after opening the grey valve. This may or may not work for you depending on your valve configuration, but I haven't encountered a drop of yuck in the sewer hose connection (manifold?) since I started this practice. I could speculate on the types of stuff that could lodge in the valve mechanism preventing a seal, but suffice it to say, flushing the valve backwards with a good slug of soapy water from a full grey tank cleans the valve seating surfaces enough to allow it seal when closed.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

in our rig, the end of the sewer pipe that the hose attaches to is inside the waste tank bay (separate from the water bay). As a result, we do not disconnect the hose, but just cap it and coil it in the waste tank bay above the sewer pipe connection. As a result, never have any drips. Only time we have drips is when a seal needs to be replaced or hose nears end of life.
Hence, I am part of the no glove ranks.

 

[Joe Hogan]

I am one of those people that has a container of wipes in the wet bay, use multiple gloves, and still wash hands when I get back into coach. Just feel better that way.

 

[Rollin Ollen]

I used to have this problem and thought I’d have to replace the black tank valve, but I started backwashing the black valve surfaces by leaving the black valve open for a few seconds after opening the grey valve. This may or may not work for you depending on your valve configuration, but I haven't encountered a drop of yuck in the sewer hose connection (manifold?) since I started this practice. I could speculate on the types of stuff that could lodge in the valve mechanism preventing a seal, but suffice it to say, flushing the valve backwards with a good slug of soapy water from a full grey tank cleans the valve seating surfaces enough to allow it seal when closed.

I use the same technique!

Darrell

 

[Boat Bum]

I have a better chance of contamination wiping my ass and I don't wear gloves doing that. I started off wearing gloves but my hands sweat in them and they would usually tear at some point. My hands never get wet doing this and I scrub them after.