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.