Worry Olympics

You’ve probably heard that the water the athletes in Rio will be rowing and swimming in is pretty gross. I have a morbid curiosity about such things, so I went looking online for more information. (Typically online research is a really bad idea for someone with OCD. I’m not supposed to be Googling health risks, and I don’t recommend you do either. In this case, it worked out in my favor, but...). Luckily, I came across this article.

The article states that people who ingest 3 teaspoons of the water at Rio’s Olympic venues could get violently ill. The title includes the word “just” (just 3 teaspoons), but it might as well read “as much as” for the effect it has on me. 3 teaspoons sounds like a ton! Granted, it may not be much when you consider how much water a swimmer is likely to ingest. But it is about ten thousand times more than the amounts I worry about, and in much less extreme situations--situations like water splashing out of my sink while I’m doing dishes, or my girl throwing stones in our city’s beautiful river. The article goes on to say that even though it would take 3 teaspoons to make illness a high probability, “whether they actually fall ill depends on a series of factors including the strength of the individual’s immune system.” My mind is blown. A whole three teaspoons and they might not even get sick?

Don’t get me wrong. I feel tremendous concern for the Rio athletes. But I don’t think I’ll worry about my girl splashing river water anymore. In fact, I just took her to throw stones in the river. Check out the size of the one she threw in. You can bet she made a splash.

"Aha!"

"Should I? Or not?"

Mud puddles are also a perennial favorite