Some people spit when they talk. To those of us who don’t, it’s an annoyance, especially considering the number of times we need to make excuses to end conversations quickly or avoid conversation altogether. Hiding behind the annoyance factor is something far more sinister. Spit, as it turns out, is really, really nasty.
Human saliva is full of all manner of bacteria. In fact, there are typically between 500 and 650 different species of bacteria in the average human mouth. If one were to scrape all the plaque in the average mouth off the teeth, there would be in the neighborhood of 20 billion microbes in it. ‘Billion’ is a number that most people simply can’t fathom. To put it in perspective, if you were to count to 1 million at a rate of one number per second, it would take you over 11 and a half days to make it to your goal. A billion is 1,000 million. We’re talking about twenty of those. That’s a seriously big number.
So what happens when these spit-talkers get into your face and spit all over you? They’re flinging microbes, and viruses all over you, and you politely stand there and take it, like a tough guy pretending he doesn’t need an umbrella. For every droplet you feel, there are at least ten you don’t. A three-minute conversation with a spit-talker is likely to cover you with several million foreign bacteria.
If you’re starting to get grossed out, good.
So what do you do? The simple answer is to carry a full face shield and wear DuPont™ Tyvek® coveralls under your clothing. Tyvek® is a shield used to keep people safe from all manner of microbes and chemicals. Will you look silly at work? Probably. Will you avoid your coworker’s bacteria storm? Absolutely. Tyvek® is an affordable solution to the problem of oblivious spit-speech.
