BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear

Subject: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Rasener
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 02:34 AM

From The Sunday Times September 20, 2009

Urban Myths: Should you beware of flesh-eating underwear?

Women have been known to remove their clothes in a hurry after hearing a persistent rumour about the dangers of newly bought underwear. According to a warning that has circulated via e-mail and internet message boards for several years, it is extremely dangerous to put brand-new bras and knickers on straight away, because they can harbour vicious flesh-eating bacteria. The messages, which often come with ghastly photographs of afflicted women, stress that freshly bought undies should be thoroughly washed before they are worn. The warnings seem to carry a racist subtext about imported goods: as one worried woman with an interesting take on grammar puts it, 'We tend to forget that the clothes we buy have been who knows where and who touched them.' At no point do the messages explain why the evil bugs choose to lurk only in 'smalls' and not in skirts, blouses, stockings or other garments. This is because the whole idea of flesh-eating underwear is a hoax. The anonymous prankster behind it may derive excitement from the idea of people stripping in a panic, or from the sight of frilly items rotating in a washing machine.

Have any mudcatters fallen for this :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: gnu
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:06 AM

Not me.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Amergin
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:24 AM

If it gets pretty women to remove their clothes that much faster....it's a good urban myth to circulate....

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:24 AM

Flesh eating underwear? I've seen a lot of thong-sporting young girls in our market place who look as though their flesh is eating their underwear! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: SINSULL
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 08:05 AM

Nope. I thought this was about some new and weird vibrater.

But it is always a good idea to launder new clothes, sheets, towels, etc. before using them because thay often have chemicals on them from dyes, sizing, starch, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 08:22 AM

No, but I heard of disappearing thongs.


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1625142/tanyas_disappearing_thong_the_panty_raid/

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 09:04 AM

. . . and didn't someone invent edible underwear a few years back? I think maybe it was made of rice paper.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 09:25 AM

But it is always a good idea to launder new clothes, sheets, towels, etc. before using them because thay often have chemicals on them from dyes, sizing, starch, etc.

too right mate. Towels have fabric softener in them to make you think they are cuddly and nice. The fabric softener is a lubricant to make the fibres glide over each other, and hence feel soft. Those fibres can't hold as much water because they are full already.

Personally, for the same reason, I buy cheap detergents because they are usually the ones without the softeners, but they are a vanishing breed.

I tried to suggest a "softener as fashion" item to a Radio presenter (of Women's Programmes) and she knew all about it but replied "But I prefer my towels.....". I don't think the irony of the word "prefer" even suggested itself to her.

Ask a woman who has been burgled and how much washing of smalls she does before wearing pants that have been handled by a "low life". Even if his hands were ostensibly cleanish and he barely touched them!

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 10:06 AM

Don't wear underwear.

Simple.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 10:30 AM

Don't know why anyone should think these warnings (or hoaxes) seem to carry any racist subtext; weren't there true instances of people being damaged by chemicals found on leather furniture imported from China, fairly recently? If warnings about materials originating in the Orient are true, then how are they "racist"?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 10:44 AM

Me neither, Rapaire. But I have a landscaper friend who has some terrible fungus where his undies touch his *legs* and he can't find undies that help, and undies are necessary because of the sweatiness of the work, which feeds the fungi...

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 11:32 AM

My wife must have heard that warning. She told me to take her underwear off immediately. I won't tell you what she threatened to do if I wore them again.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:23 PM

Exactly, Sins. I have to wash all new clothing, of any type, with a smidgen of vinegar in the wash to remove the sizing which makes me break out and itch.

edible underwear has been available a long time; I remember seeing some in a mercantile in the early 80s.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:34 PM

Is there a market selling them to the obese?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: frogprince
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:36 PM

Some collegues gave my wife a pair of edible panties as a bridal shower gift. Pretty much the same material as gummy worms, but with a lot less flavor. Quite literally rather tasteless, but I didn't really mind at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:47 PM

Doesn't bother me......I don't wear women's underwear. As a matter of fact, I don't wear underwear at all....................

But here's something that is REALLY important and also not well known. I have posted this before but I believe it merits another look. Here is a comprehensive Study on the Effects of Celery on Loose Elastic in Underwear.

Now that is something to be on the lookout for!


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: mg
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 01:04 PM

I think it is a reasonable warning and people should wash clothes before wearing. We can probably assume that there is not perfect sanitation in most textile mills, US or otherwise. Some places do not have adequate water for washing either the cloth or to provide adequately for workers. It seems like just basic sanitation advice. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 01:14 PM

A case was reported in one of Berton Rouche's books of some children who died from wearing new jeans. Seems that concentrated insecticide had spilled on the shipment of jeans; they were taken to an "outlet" store....

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:02 PM

I am sure that this story hits home to many Mudcatters
legecandy.com/2009/06/09/weve-all-been-there-laundry-time/#more-31438

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Amergin
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:26 PM

Yeah the 404 was rather profound.....

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:52 PM

I think that this thread is mistitled. Shouldn't it be "Beware of FISH eating underwear"?? I personally know at least three people who went swimming in their underwear just last week, only to have it eaten by carp and sturgeon. One of them, Lefty Wright, was still wearing last Fall's longies and the fish which ate them (it died right away) was immediately declared a Superfund Site by the EPA.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 05:22 PM

In case my previous link did not work:


http://collegecandy.com/2009/06/09/weve-all-been-there-laundry-time/

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 06:11 PM

Here is a possible reason to be careful:


http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol7num1/NYUcases/contact/joe.html

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 06:16 PM

Allergic Contact Dermatitis to Underwear Elastic

Chemically Transformed by Laundry Bleach

William P. Jordan, Jr., MD; Manuel C. Bourlas, MS

Arch Dermatol. 1975;111(5):593-595.

Abstract
        
Six subjects, allergic to the elastic in their undergarments, were patch test-negative to the rubber components and new elastic from the suppliers. However, washing the rubber with sodium hypochlorite gave the subjects allergic responses due to the effect of bleach on the rubber accelerator, zinc dibenzyldithiocarbamate (ZDC). To identify the allergen, ZDC was reacted with the sodium hypochlorite, and the resultant gum was extracted with diethyl ether. Eight compounds were identified in the reaction mixture by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The individual components were tested on volunteers after sensitization to the reaction mixture was produced in 14 of 25 volunteers. One component, N,N-dibenzylcarbamyl chloride produced an allergic response in each sensitized volunteer.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware of flesh eating underwear
From: olddude
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 07:27 PM

some say ... it is all about the Wedgies"