infected canned soda/pop
By mnflower
@mnflower (1299)
United States
August 27, 2008 8:45am CST
his incident happened recently in North Texas . A woman went boating
one Sunday taking with her some cans of coke which she put into the
refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken to the hospital and placed
in ICU. She died on Wednesday.
The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to
the can of coke she drank from without using a glass. Tests showed that the
can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis.
Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly
recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of soda cans before drinking
out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported
straight to the shops without being cleaned.
A study at NYCU showed that the tops of soda cans are more
contaminated than public toilets (i.e).. full of germs and bacteria. So wash
them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal
accident.
Here is the original statement from snopes.com---http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/raturine.asp
1 person likes this
3 responses
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
27 Aug 08
The story is not true http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/raturine.asp
You can get Leptospirosis from rats and other animals BUT the major carrier is not rats. Most people get it from swimming in lakes & ponds.
Since freshness is everything, you may get a dirt y can every now and again, but most drinks do not sit in any warehouse long enough and are packaged well enough that they don't get anything on them. If you thin about it, other than dirt in the trucks, they are not exposed to anything. They are boxed and then covered with plastic. That would have to be one hardy and bored rat to even get to the cans.
I worked in a warehouse. If there were rats, they sure didn't bother with the canned items.
@easymoney75503 (1702)
• United States
27 Aug 08
i have to disagree. i worked for walamrt and i was ics and they had rats. my grandpa was a truck driver so i have been to many warehouses and yes there are rats. they love insullation and well the food is easy to get to. walmart cokes come on a big pallet and then they sit it the back room for months cause they dont get rotated all the time. there is nothing covering the cans. one of my good friends works in the main warehouse for walmart in sanger texas and trust me they have stuff that sits there forever and a day. a place doesnt have to be nasty to have rats. if it sits next to a field or open area and they mow you can get rats. alot of walmarts in smaller places do sit like that. i worked for them for like 4 months and quit cause of many reasons. lets just say we sent alot fo out dated stuff back in for credit cause when they opened the super center we found boxes of stuff that was out of date and pallets of stuff. they also hurried and got stuff ont he shelf if the date was going out in a month to hurry and get money for it insted of credit. example, ceral, sauces, drinks, gravey mix. also yes we had to throw some out and do reports cause something opened it and it was not human.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
27 Aug 08
Rats get in to food items all the time and you don't here about people getting sick.As far as the actual story above is false.
Rats are going to get into food items that they want to eat before they go into canned item boxes.
Worry more about cereal boxes than getting stuff from soda cans. Wash them, but odds are, if you get any rat illnesses, it won't be from them.
There warehouse I Worked in claimed to not have rats BUT we would have pallets of flour and cereal that would get eaten and crew would only throw away the damaged items. If there were rat droppings, they would wipe them off! Even worse - this was stuff for the school lunch program.
Every food warehouse is going to have rats, that is common knowledge (or should be). Point is, worry about all of the canned/boxed items, not just canned soda.
@mynameismine (771)
• United States
27 Aug 08
Yeah for snopes! But the bigger question would be who in the world would NOT notice that on the top of the can. I know it is a false story but man just the idea is nasty enough for me 
.
.
@easymoney75503 (1702)
• United States
27 Aug 08
omg!!!!!
that is just nuts. it is something people really dont think about. i mean i have a habbit of wipping off the can before i take a drink but never really thought about it. makes you wonder what else we touch and eat and drink. i know when i go to walmart here lately the produce section smells really bad and i was told it was due to price of gas the truckers not bring half loads so they wait till they can bring in a full load making our food even fresh sit longer. i have friends that are truckers and they have all been talking about it. thank you for sharing this i didnt hear of it and i live in that area kind of. at least we get the news from that area. it seems like all news would be having this story running considering that is something that could really affect alot of people. that poor woman and her family.
... this is sucha good thing you shared with us. Thankyou so much positively rated you!!
surely one of the best discussions on mylot!
keep the good work going on !
