People whose standards of cleanliness were higher than yours were obsessive. The clean freaks had the moral high ground, and manufacturers were really good at marketing to the fear of grime. TV shows about the germiness of motel bedding or the germiness of raw chicken have made a vivid impact. I've noticed that increasing numbers of perfectly sane people won't leave home without a bottle of an antibacterial hand cleaner like Purell, so they can sluice down hourly. The citizens of Japan are even more concerned about hygiene than Americans.
Japanese manufacturers pump out antibacterial telephones, scissors and deposit books.
One company claims to sell a million antibacterial ballpoints a month. Some department stores have whole sections of antibacterial stationery. Sanitation has been a triumph of modern medicine, all but eradicating many diseases and parasites. We've whipped the body louse, trichinosis, typhoid and childbed fever, and we're not a bit nostalgic. But there are signs that this very preoccupation with good hygiene is making some of us sick.