Expert charges Nigerians not to use sponge more than a month

A Public Health Specialist, Dr Oyewole Oyerinde, says people should not bathe with a particular sponge for more than a month.

Oyerinde, who is of the Department of Public Health, School of Public and Allied Health, Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo in Ogun, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that it was also unhygienic to spread worn and unwashed clothes in the sun.

Oyerinde said: “Some people use a sponge for more than one month or two months which is not good for the skin.

“We need to change sponge after one month of usage, we change it so that the germs that have been removed by the sponge will not fall back to the skin.

“The sponge should be spread in the sun for ultraviolet rays to kill all the germs hidden on it.

“Many of us don’t spread our sponge in the sun, we keep it in the same bathroom, and so ultraviolet rays cannot kill all the germs hidden there,’’ the don said.

On spreading of worn and unwashed clothes in the sun, he said: “Spreading of clothes in the sun without washing is dangerous to health.

“It is dangerous to people’s health because germs removed from the body are stored on it.

“The germs that have been collected on the cloth would only get strengthened in the sun, then you wear the clothes again.More in Home

“With time, the skin becomes irritated and the germs cause skin allergies and infections.”

He advised that clothes should be spread in the sun only after they have been washed because detergents would have killed the germs on the clothes.

Oyerinde added there was the need for skin checkup as a preventive measure against certain diseases.

[NAN]