Does Gluten Break Down From A Surface After A While?

[BelleVie]

It's been about two months since I went strictly gluten-free, and I've still been sick pretty consistently. Things are getting a littttle bit better, but still not where I'd like to be.

 

I'm certain that none of my food is CCed, as I cook mostly fresh veggies, and for processed things I try to use only gluten-free certified. But I work at a kindergarten, where people are constantly munching on cookies and crackers and bread, then using computers and the mouse, the tea kettle, the light switches, the doors, etc etc. It's in Korea, too, which isn't as obsessed with cleanliness as the U.S. is, so these things never get wiped down. My question is, could I be getting glutened from these things? For example, if I use the school computer, then get on my laptop right after, then eat a snack, could that be glutening me, or would that be too small of an amount? 

 

What sort of eating rituals do you all follow to ensure that your food and eating space is safe? And how much should one worry about being cross contaminated from unusual sources like these?   I don't want to be crazy, but I want to get into some really good habits so I can stop thinking about gluten so much during the day!!!!! 

 

Also, if my boyfriend eats a sandwich and then kisses me on the cheek, could that gluten me? I don't let him kiss me on the mouth until after he has brushed his teeth, but I've been allowing a peck here and there.  

[dilettantesteph]

After touching anything that might have gluten on it, I am careful to wash up before touching anything that I am going to eat.  Skin contact with gluten should not be a problem if you wash it off before it can get ingested.

 

According to the University of Chicago celiac center, gluten takes 4 years to break down in soil.  I think that it would take longer to break down on a counter.  Open Original Shared Link

[BelleVie]

4 years? Seriously? Wow, this is like a rabbit hole. 

[dilettantesteph]

I don't know what their reference was.  I e-mailed to ask them and they didn't get back to me.  I haven't been able to find any scientific studies to back that up.  It does make me want to exercise caution in my garden.

[Yojimbo]

  On 9/25/2013 at 5:53 AM, BelleVie said:

It's been about two months since I went strictly gluten-free, and I've still been sick pretty consistently. Things are getting a littttle bit better, but still not where I'd like to be.

 

I'm certain that none of my food is CCed, as I cook mostly fresh veggies, and for processed things I try to use only gluten-free certified. But I work at a kindergarten, where people are constantly munching on cookies and crackers and bread, then using computers and the mouse, the tea kettle, the light switches, the doors, etc etc. It's in Korea, too, which isn't as obsessed with cleanliness as the U.S. is, so these things never get wiped down. My question is, could I be getting glutened from these things? For example, if I use the school computer, then get on my laptop right after, then eat a snack, could that be glutening me, or would that be too small of an amount? 

 

What sort of eating rituals do you all follow to ensure that your food and eating space is safe? And how much should one worry about being cross contaminated from unusual sources like these?   I don't want to be crazy, but I want to get into some really good habits so I can stop thinking about gluten so much during the day!!!!! 

 

Also, if my boyfriend eats a sandwich and then kisses me on the cheek, could that gluten me? I don't let him kiss me on the mouth until after he has brushed his teeth, but I've been allowing a peck here and there.

Depending on how sensitive you are, yes, the gluten you pick up from shared objects could really be harming you.  I know this because I was working with a student last year in the faculty cafeteria after school.  We worked on the tables that the teachers used for lunch and there is gluten everywhere.  I would come home and scrub my hands under the sink like a surgeon multiple times.  Took a shower and tried to scrub it off again using a washcloth.  Made and ate dinner.  My stomach immediately bloated in a gluten reaction. 

 

This happened every time I worked there.  It happens when I try to meet my business partner at a coffee shop where we chat and I take notes.  I come home after having my notebooks and pens all over these gluten-covered tables and I wash my hands many times using a scrub brush and I still get a gluten reaction.

 

My solution now is to wear latex gloves whenever I work in these places.  It made me feel weird in the beginning to be wearing these in public, but I can cook and eat dinner without any reaction whatsoever, so I've actually gotten used to it and don't make apologies for it anymore.  Cause otherwise, the alternative for me is to get sick and wait for the contaminated skin on my fingers and hands to slough off which could take 24 hours or more before I'm safe. 

[dilettantesteph]

Isn't it weird that it doesn't seem to wash off?  I have examples of it not seeming to wash off either.  I find it mystifying.  

[Gemini]

  On 10/15/2013 at 8:10 AM, Yojimbo said:

 

My solution now is to wear latex gloves whenever I work in these places.  It made me feel weird in the beginning to be wearing these in public, but I can cook and eat dinner without any reaction whatsoever, so I've actually gotten used to it and don't make apologies for it anymore.  Cause otherwise, the alternative for me is to get sick and wait for the contaminated skin on my fingers and hands to slough off which could take 24 hours or more before I'm safe. 

It's official...now I've heard everything.    

[Yojimbo]

  On 10/15/2013 at 2:22 PM, dilettantesteph said:

Isn't it weird that it doesn't seem to wash off?  I have examples of it not seeming to wash off either.  I find it mystifying.  

 

Yeah, isn't that weird?  I thought washing with Dr. Bronner's and Ivory soap twice each along with a scrub brush and cloth and rinsing multiple times would do the trick, but nope! 

 

I found a post from someone about the difficulties of getting gluten off surfaces and it made a lot of sense that even soap might not be abrasive enough to get that "stickiness" off.  http://www.thesavvyceliac.com/2010/02/11/washing-away-the-gluten/%C2'>

 

 

  On 10/16/2013 at 4:28 PM, Gemini said:

It's official...now I've heard everything.  

 

Yeah, but the funny thing is it works!    I get less gluten reactions and I feel safer making my dinner from scratch every night. 

 

Also, probably the reason why I am that sensitive is because my leaky gut has never healed.  I think going gluten free is not enough for me.  I really need to be on a probiotic, enzyme, and glutamine regiment, and I just don't have the budget for it yet.

[BelleVie]

  On 10/15/2013 at 8:10 AM, Yojimbo said:

Depending on how sensitive you are, yes, the gluten you pick up from shared objects could really be harming you.  I know this because I was working with a student last year in the faculty cafeteria after school.  We worked on the tables that the teachers used for lunch and there is gluten everywhere.  I would come home and scrub my hands under the sink like a surgeon multiple times.  Took a shower and tried to scrub it off again using a washcloth.  Made and ate dinner.  My stomach immediately bloated in a gluten reaction. 

 

This happened every time I worked there.  It happens when I try to meet my business partner at a coffee shop where we chat and I take notes.  I come home after having my notebooks and pens all over these gluten-covered tables and I wash my hands many times using a scrub brush and I still get a gluten reaction.

 

My solution now is to wear latex gloves whenever I work in these places.  It made me feel weird in the beginning to be wearing these in public, but I can cook and eat dinner without any reaction whatsoever, so I've actually gotten used to it and don't make apologies for it anymore.  Cause otherwise, the alternative for me is to get sick and wait for the contaminated skin on my fingers and hands to slough off which could take 24 hours or more before I'm safe. 

Haha maybe we should invent a line of stylish latex gloves for celiacs.   I'd buy some! Lol. 

[dilettantesteph]

I'd buy some too.  

[IrishHeart]

  On 10/16/2013 at 4:28 PM, Gemini said:

It's official...now I've heard everything.  

 

Oh come now, I doubt you've heard "everything" yet. you're still young.

[kareng]

  On 10/16/2013 at 4:28 PM, Gemini said:

It's official...now I've heard everything.  

  On 10/16/2013 at 4:28 PM, Gemini said:

It's official...now I've heard everything.  

  

  On 10/20/2013 at 4:10 PM, IrishHeart said:

Oh come now, I doubt you've heard "everything" yet. you're still young.

I am afraid you two are issuing a challenge!

[GF Lover]

I've been thinking about this.  Reading about how gluten can jump off of tables whilst having a coffee or walking through the cafeteria and being assaulted by gluten particles and how all attempts to scrub the little beasties off have little effect, I did a quick search on ebay and found used HazMat suits at very reasonable prices.    Do you think I'm over reacting?

 

C'mon Man

[notme]

  On 10/20/2013 at 5:01 PM, GF Lover said:

I've been thinking about this.  Reading about how gluten can jump off of tables whilst having a coffee or walking through the cafeteria and being assaulted by gluten particles and how all attempts to scrub the little beasties off have little effect, I did a quick search on ebay and found used HazMat suits at very reasonable prices.    Do you think I'm over reacting?

 

C'mon Man

but...........who wants mesylthelioma, ya know?    if you or someone you know has it, you gotta call people and stuff.  (seems like a hassle) 

[GottaSki]

Allergic to latex...sticking with soap and water.

[Adalaide]

  On 10/20/2013 at 9:08 PM, GottaSki said:

Allergic to latex...sticking with soap and water.

 

They make vinyl gloves you know, and they're usually blue. Us allergic people could start a new trend.

 

....ok, I actually use soap and water too. And since I'd probably turn up allergic to hazmat suits (and so would you for sure ) I think it's a sound plan to stick to. Works on me and on my kitchen.

[GottaSki]

  On 10/20/2013 at 9:42 PM, Adalaide said:

They make vinyl gloves you know, and they're usually blue. Us allergic people could start a new trend.

....ok, I actually use soap and water too. And since I'd probably turn up allergic to hazmat suits (and so would you for sure ) I think it's a sound plan to stick to. Works on me and on my kitchen.

I know...I carry nitrile gloves in my go pack...but have never thought to use them to protect from gluten...

And I would certainly be allergic to a hazmat suit

[daisy buchanan]

  On 10/15/2013 at 2:22 PM, dilettantesteph said:

Isn't it weird that it doesn't seem to wash off?  I have examples of it not seeming to wash off either.  I find it mystifying.  

 

 

Can you give me an example of gluten not washing off because I do not understand how that is possible. It's not glue or anything.

Other foods wash off if you wash your hands, why not that one too?

[BelleVie]

C'mon guys, I really wasn't asking asking for sarcasm. You people, of all people, should understand that being perpetually sick can make you really re-think your steps, trying to figure out where the problem is hiding. I like a good joke, but I think gluten-free Lover's sarcastic comment was unkind. This stuff is new to me. I'm just trying to figure it out, kapeesh? 

[BelleVie]

And on top of that, when a person spends 8 hours a day in an environment with 60 children who eat bread and snacks in the morning, at lunch, and after school, and then proceed to touch EVERYTHING, I don't think it's crazy to suggest that yes, gluten lingering on surfaces is a problem. 

[kareng]

  On 10/20/2013 at 11:25 PM, BelleVie said:

And on top of that, when a person spends 8 hours a day in an environment with 60 children who eat bread and snacks in the morning, at lunch, and after school, and then proceed to touch EVERYTHING, I don't think it's crazy to suggest that yes, gluten lingering on surfaces is a problem.

I think they were questioning a few people who seem to claim that gluten cannot be washed off. If that were the case, we would need a bubble suit.

[BelleVie]

  On 10/20/2013 at 11:28 PM, kareng said:

I think they were questioning a few people who seem to claim that gluten cannot be washed off. If that were the case, we would need a bubble suit.

 

Ah, in that case I must have misunderstood. Fair enough. 

[IrishHeart]

Belle Vie

If I may say something here?

 

Washing your hands takes care of the problem.

Gluten does not adhere to things like a "film", hon. Even if I walked into an entire room of  150

3 year olds eating crackers, sammies and cookies,

I would feel comfortable just washing my hands, brushing off my clothes and not worrying that I had been glutened.

 

You and I have chatted a few times, right? I would never steer you wrong.

 

You have to INGEST gluten for it to cause a problem. 

Best wishes, as always!

[kareng]

  On 10/20/2013 at 11:29 PM, IrishHeart said:

Belle Vie

If I may say something here?

 

Washing your hands takes care of the problem.

Gluten does not adhere to things like a "film", hon. Even if I walked into an entire room of  150

3 year olds eating crackers, sammies and cookies,

 

You have to INGEST gluten for it to cause a problem. 

Best wishes, as always!

Gluten washes off 3 year olds, too! But some parents might frown on power washing the kids with a fire hose?

[BelleVie]

Okay, okay, Irish, I'll resolve to chill on my paranoia.