This is new: don't seal envelope by licking

[SeerSGB]

Working on the bills and one of the medical billing companies had a note on the pay stub asking that due "employee health and safety concerns" that envelopes no longer be sealed with saliva or by licking or "other bodily fluids" and payments are not to be attached to the stubs by staples, paper clips, or other "potentially hazardous devices"

This is a new one on me. Anyone else seen anything like that recently?

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

^ Other bodily fluids - Ooeer Mrs!!!

 

[Joeman]

I never could stand the taste of it, so I've always used a damp sponge or something similar. But no, other than George Constanza's fiance' dying from licking envelopes, I had not heard of that being dangerous.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I don't know about it being actually "dangerous", but I was always told by my parents when I was younger never to lick the envelopes to seal them. It's a common advice here. And all offices have use a wet sponge for that (not only for safety, but also because after the tenth envelope you lick, you usually start feeling like you have shit in your mouth).

 

[Amaris]

I don't know about it being actually "dangerous", but I was always told by my parents when I was younger never to lick the envelopes to seal them. It's a common advice here. And all offices have use a wet sponge for that (not only for safety, but also because after the tenth envelope you lick, you usually start feeling like you have shit in your mouth).

I still lick any envelopes I send, and as someone who is OCD, it gets to me, but, I do it so rarely (I send out one letter a month), it's never been too much of an issue.

 

[JonathonWally]

I seal envelopes with crazy glue. Make those fuckers work to get my check out of there.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I just buy pre-licked envelopes.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I buy the kind where you just peel off a wax strip and fold the top down. No licking.

 

[Docbrown777]

I don't really see how it is a health hazard to the people receiving the mail. Once the envelope is sealed the glue part is never really exposed again.

 

[SVD]

right, the envelope is either torn at the top or cut open from the end, the glue not exposed. Though, the dried saliva may make it to the contents depeding on how far from the edge one has licked.

I lick the seal of the envelope, some actually taste good. My grandpa wets his finger with saliva and then rubs the seal with it.

 

[Brent]

I'm a licker

 

[Deckerd]

We had to stop a temp doing it. She couldn't understand why we were concerned with her licking 200 gummy strips every couple of hours. It was a wrong order of envelopes instead of the self-seal variety. Our administrator never wastes anything, even if the health of the employees might be compromised. We made her use a sponge and a cup of water and she was still grumbling about it when we "let her go".

 

[scotpens]

So now you're not supposed to lick envelopes? Why not? To prevent spreading germs or to avoid catching other people's germs? Both seem highly unlikely.

Sounds like just another instance of our modern wussy paranoid society. Yes, I lick envelopes. I also pick up food that's been dropped on the floor and eat it. And I've been known to run while holding scissors. I like to live dangerously.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"... other... bodily... fluids...."

 

[STR]

I'm going to completely slobber over every piece of mail I will ever send from now on. Hell, I'm gonna hawk a loogie on the envelope for my next rent check. #### you and your hypochondria.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Urban legend about roach eggs being on the sealing area, and some person licking it, getting roach eggs in their salival glands and roaches hatching in their mouth.

 

[SVD]

Urban legend about roach eggs being on the sealing area, and some person licking it, getting roach eggs in their salival glands and roaches hatching in their mouth.

 

[shivkala]

It's not the cockroach eggs I'm worried about, it's the cyanide.

 

[Dream]

This topic reminded me of the Seinfeld episode which had that woman dying because she licked too many envelopes that had glue that was toxic.

 

[SeerSGB]

So no staples, no paper clips...I know, I'll glue the check to the stub.

"... other... bodily... fluids...."

Yeah. I'm almost tempted to call up and ask what people have been sealing envelopes with and how the staff figured out what it was.