Are people getting dirtier?

Question

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1049260/Dramatic-rise-bedbugs-infesting-seats-buses-trains.html

According to the coments at the end of this story, we are spreading our bedbugs because we no longer boilwash our bedding and people are just getting smellier and dirtier anyway.

Are the British manky?

Answer 1

I for one am very clean and house proud but I do know a few scruffy, dirty swines, and it makes me wonder,how the h**l  they can live like that and never be ill. They must have a good immune system through being in contact with all that dirt!

Answer 2

Not Barack Obama.   Joe Biden said he was clean.

Answer 3

YES.  We are definately getting dirtier through ignorance and negligence.

Answer 4

Not at all.

Answer 5

I've heard this before, particularly the increase in bed bugs and hair-nits. The house I grew up in, bought after the war, had 14 of us living in it, one bath, heated by a coal stove, so you can imagine how many baths were had, and my mum never had a washing machine in her life, but I don't recall any bugs. It was a massive house where only the living rooms were heated, anything in bedrooms would have died off in winter. Personal hygiene has to have improved. I have no recollection of hair-nits as a kid, yet they seem more common now, but we did have regular inspections by the school nurse. As for fleas, the human flea is rare now, hence no more Flea Circuses, the cat and dog flea doesn't perform apparently. Maybe the bugs are spreading in places where they're probably warmer year round. As for personal hygiene I'd have thought people are cleaner in general, body odour isn't so common, we notice it now, I think people forget years ago it was more common.

Answer 6

God knows. All I know is that my house is spotless and I am from North London.

My Mother is constantly cleaning ensuring the house is perfect.  

Answer 7

Well i am British and no way am i manky.  My house is spotless, i don't like mess and i clean all the time.  Not many people boil wash their bed linen unless they haven't washed them for years.  My bedding is washing weekly, in fact my washing machine is on every day.  There are dirty people in all countries, not just the British.

Answer 8

well put it this way, I've never been in a city where I smell more of that mildew/Mcdonalds-sweat than in london

dont these people frikkin smell themselves? i cant even go close to some of them!!

Answer 9

As the daughter of a clean freak I swore I wasn't going to spend my life in service to my house.

When my kids came along I put this on the fridge-

" quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep,

  I'm rocking my baby as babies don't keep"

Okay the youngest is nearly 8 and it kills me to leave things sometimes..I swear I spend more time with my head in the washing machine than my Nan did at the sink handwashing.

Life is too short. ( Still a crank over personal hygiene though ..)

Answer 10

All the above who think we are getting dirtier speak for yourselves, I for one am not, although it is not considered correct I still boil my bedding and towels.My sons flat mate is French she is the filthiest person I have ever encountered and as for the Spanish LMFAO most os them smell like yesterdays left over soup, Jokers.

Answer 11

I think that all nations have their clean freaks and their dirty bu**ers, It used to be the French who were suspect, probably because of their toilets. I can also remember the Spanish being described as not clean enough.

There was a report a year or so ago about New York hotels having bed bugs and people carrying them back to the UK in their luggage, so lets all blame the Yanks.

As for me, well my house is clean and tidy and so are we, but my youngest son thinks we leave a bit to be desired!!!  When he stays here he will have a bath before bed and a shower in the morning. I have never, ever seen him with a bit of dirt on his hands.

He even inspects my cutlery before we eat.  So maybe there is room for improvement.  

But who cleaned up last evening when he felt unwell and was sick in the bathroom.  LOL

Answer 12

maybe

i have taught in schools in some awful areas and some kids are spotless while others are smelly and dirty

i have taught in nicer areas where there are fewer smelly/dirty kids

some kids i have taught are filthy on monday and just get dirtier over the course of a week ......  

Answer 13

i believe your right!

Answer 14

nothing ever changes in europe.

Answer 15

well im most certainley not i boil my bedding everytime i wash it and my house is spotless

Answer 16

your dirty

Answer 17

As a general rule- yes.

Answer 18

Excuse me, but I wash my a**s after every c**p

Answer 19

bollocks.  The article you refer to is about public transport.  THAT is concern for ALL of us who have to use it.

Answer 20

Some people are but it is the same everywhere, there are clean people and filthy people.

Answer 21

I think many of us over-wash now.  I remember the times when ordinary people never saw a shower except maybe at school after sports.  Men would turn their shirt collars inwards to wash themselves and it was normal to take a bath once a week.  But some of our other habits are dirty and are leading to the increase in diseases, even diseases that were thought not to exist any more.  Many people use the toilet without washing their hands afterwards, or buy takeaway meals and throw them away for the rats, or eat with dirty hands or spit in the street.  I read somewhere that there is a big increase in pubic lice because people no longer boil their underwear.

Answer 22

Some insects are spreading due to global warming.  It has nothing to do with hygiene.

Answer 23

I always wash my towels and bedding on a 90 degree wash.  And I shower twice daily.  But I do know people who dont boil wash their bedding etc, it is a bit minging!!

Answer 24

The British aren't manky, people can be dirty no matter where they are from.  The news article is about bedbugs being found on public transport, so this could even be due to visitors to Britain bringing the bugs in or people returning from abroad.  

In relation to whether bedbugs are spread due to bedding not being boil washed, this cannot be true.  Although in today's eco-friendly world we are advised to 'wash at thirty if it's not dirty'.  I have never boil washed anything, but I do change my bedding regularly and vacuum the mattress from time to time.  I have never seen or been bitten by a bedbug in my life.  I like to have a clean house and I hope it doesn't smell, not everyone thinks like that though.

Answer 25

might be  

Answer 26

I agree. Central heating in homes, not washing correctly and not hoovering correctly has lead to this increase in British filth.

Answer 27

yes i'm afraid so. i went into cannock town centre the other day and it was full of chavy white mothers with chocolate babies and dirty pensioners  lol. i dont boilwash mine but i do hoover the mattresses regulary.