[IP] PRO/EDR> Tinea pedis, public health concern - USA

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Bob Weber <Weber@PescaderoGroup.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:38:44 -0500
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Fwd: PRO/EDR> Tinea pedis, public health concern - USA

Possibly for the IP list

Cheers
>Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 15:55:26 -0500 (EST)
>To: promed-edr@promedmail.org
>From: ProMED-mail <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>
>Subject: PRO/EDR> Tinea pedis, public health concern - USA
>X-ProMED-Id: 20050320.0811
>Sender: owner-promed-edr@promed.isid.harvard.edu
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>
>TINEA PEDIS, PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERN - USA
>***************************************
>A ProMED-mail post
><http://www.promedmail.org>
>ProMED-mail is a program of the
>International Society for Infectious Diseases
><http://www.isid.org>
>
>Date: Sun 20 Mar 2005
>From: Cecil Fox <deltag@arkansas.net>
>
>
>Transmission of dermatophytes and tinea pedis in US airports
>-----------------------------------------------
>Having spent some time with mycotic infections, I am startled to see that
>the Transportation Security Administration, who supposedly monitors
>airports, "strongly" suggests that passengers remove their shoes while
>passing through the lines in American airports. The penalty for not doing
>so is an intimidating delay in which a total body scan for such contraband
>as glasses frames and wrist watches is conducted, whereupon you still are
>required to remove your shoes and to stand around on unkempt airport
>carpets while your shoes are X-rayed! If you do as "suggested," you must
>march 10 to 15 feet either barefoot or in stocking feet to a point where
>one's shoes may be reclaimed. This is evidently because a demented
>passenger attempted to ignite his shoes with either matches or a cigarette
>lighter, already prohibited.
>
>Unless I am terribly mistaken, one's flora are being mixed with that of
>several hundreds of thousand of passengers who have passed through the same
>lines. The floors are rarely cleaned (evidently) and never disinfected. Has
>simple hygiene been forfeited in the US in the name of "security?" When the
>TSA finally answered a query, they told me that OSHA had approved the cross
>contamination of hundreds of thousands of feet. The CDC, NIH, WHO, or state
>or local health departments were not consulted. National Security indeed.
>
>--
>ProMED-mail
><promed@promedmail.org>
>
>[ProMED thanks Dr. Fox for alerting us to this previously unrecognized
>danger stemming from the common security practice in US airports. Though a
>disgusting and unaesthetic procedure, the people at highest risk must
>obviously be airport security staff. Studies documenting increased risk of
>dermatophytes and/or tinea pedis, and increased risk of respiratory tract
>symptoms like asthma or allergic alveolitis, is clearly highly needed. -
>Mod.EP]
>................ep/msp/mpp
>
>
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