its a device that hangs around your neck and can detect vapor particles in the air. once detected, alterting you to the emissions from a close quarters sneeze, a small alarm goes off and a spray of anti-bacterial mist shoots out, thus killing the bacteria and viruses before they can reach your mouth. should sell for under 10 pounds. can be produced in a range of colors so as to match with any fashion accessory.
-- monty, Sep 17 2000

Japanese cold-preventing face mask http://www.japan-gu...tml/street02_e.html
Hey! I found one! Isn't Google great? [hippo, Sep 17 2000, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Dracula had a cape and he never caught a cold.
-- thumbwax, Sep 18 2000


it would be spraying all the time, around the clock. Didn't all those times your mom told you that germs are everywhere ever register in your mind? And besides, it sounds really ugly.
-- verobay, Oct 14 2000


I consistently hear from those who should know that most diseases are communicated by the germs on your hands, not those in the air.
-- beauxeault, Oct 15 2000


I understand that Japanese wear face masks when they have a cold - nothing to do with smog (see link).
-- hippo, Oct 16 2000


Beware of people wearing cold preventing face masks in the States, they are about to rob you.
-- Jonathan, Dec 06 2000


LOL Jonathan
-- tazguynn64, Dec 12 2000


I know you don't generally stoop to finding links, PeterSealy, but a source for the germicidal tissues would be interesting.

If cold viruses find their way onto hands from the nose, and most transmission is through physical contact and infected surfaces and things, maybe it worked. But 100% seems sort of high. Did you have to hold them on your hands at all times and cough and sneeze through them? Or are most people infected by pawing through other folks' used tissues? Or did they give off some odour so offensive that it stopped all interpersonal contact?
-- Monkfish, Dec 12 2000


if we had no contact with germs, we'd be in big trouble...we have to get acclimated (sp?) to them somewhat in order to have constantly "up-to-date" immune systems. Otherwise, some day your germ protection fails and you're in serious trouble from a cold, instead of just miserable for a day or three... (maybe not you but in a generation or two; I don't know if it's an evolutionary thing or simply a matter of adaptation. either way, not good)
-- Urania, Dec 23 2000


Most Upper Respiratory Infections (URIs, i.e., colds and flus) are caused by VIRUSES. Antibacterial mist would do nothing to counter these critters.

Studies show that kids whose parents bathe them and keep them from dirt meticulously have higher rates of asthma and eczema than do kids who get good and dirty and whose noses get runny every now and then. We do just fine with most germs. Colds aren't life threatening. Let's get on to the baked goods.
-- djanaba, Apr 08 2001


It seems a great idea to stop people from getting colds, 'flu and such through disinfectant and such. The problem is, then, if you do come into contact with the flu virus, you will suffer big time as you will have no immune system then. You only get immunity by exposure to a pathogen. So, if you go with your antiseptic body sprayer to a country where no-one has these, carrying the virus on your clothes, you could kill a lot of people. Unless you sterilize the whole world, a habitat without natural selection breeds killers. Now I hope this site isn't based in a state where Darwinism is illegal.
-- rjswanson, Apr 15 2001


I saw an advertisement recently in a "SkyMall" catalog (er, yes, I ran out of books on the plane, look, I didn't buy anything, okay) for some sort of device ("invented by a second grade teacher!") that hangs around your neck and "filters the air" to prevent "cold and flu germs" from reaching you.

It seemed pretty fishy to me, but it sounds almost identical to this idea.
-- egnor, Apr 15 2001


monty, are you a second grade teacher?
-- beauxeault, Apr 16 2001



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