11-16-2012, 05:33 AM
The cutting board is not more inherently prone to the problem than the fruit is, and the cutting board can tolerate much more agressive cleaning. If you eat local fruit, wash it first. If you are concerned about the cutting board, wash it with hot soapy water and maybe douse it with clorox, but don't worry more about the board than the fruit. If you think that Angiostrongylus cantonensis may be in your water then the issue is not whether washing a cutting board with that water will leave viable larvae on the board which might later contaminate food, but whether bathing or brushing your teeth is the risk. Address that risk then wash the board.
I am not sure how the risk of Angiostrongylus cantonensis compares to say salmonella or E. coli but I think they would be similar. Risk itself must be defined. Risk is a combination of how likely you are to catch something with how bad the consequences are if you do catch it. Rat lungworm can be bad, even fatal, but is not usually so. Probably many of us have gotten a headache or stiff neck that eventually went away. These symptoms may have been from rat lungworm and we never knew it. The same can be said about salmonella or E. coli. Both of those can be horrible in extreme cases.
Just a guess but I think it would be easier to wash off a multi-cellular organism like Angiostrongylus cantonensis than a single germ. Dunno. Just saying that the literature says that dosage of infectious agent makes a big difference. A little slug can carry thousands of worms. A slime trail that you washed off MIGHT leave one or two, maybe, and the literature makes it clear that most people would never know they got anything in those cases. Meanwhile that cutting board you are so worried about might indeed be a source of infection, of E. coli, if you don't wash it. You should have been concerned about the board before the slug crawled on it, and if you treat the board well enough to stave off Salmonella you will be pretty safe from lungworm.
I am not sure how the risk of Angiostrongylus cantonensis compares to say salmonella or E. coli but I think they would be similar. Risk itself must be defined. Risk is a combination of how likely you are to catch something with how bad the consequences are if you do catch it. Rat lungworm can be bad, even fatal, but is not usually so. Probably many of us have gotten a headache or stiff neck that eventually went away. These symptoms may have been from rat lungworm and we never knew it. The same can be said about salmonella or E. coli. Both of those can be horrible in extreme cases.
Just a guess but I think it would be easier to wash off a multi-cellular organism like Angiostrongylus cantonensis than a single germ. Dunno. Just saying that the literature says that dosage of infectious agent makes a big difference. A little slug can carry thousands of worms. A slime trail that you washed off MIGHT leave one or two, maybe, and the literature makes it clear that most people would never know they got anything in those cases. Meanwhile that cutting board you are so worried about might indeed be a source of infection, of E. coli, if you don't wash it. You should have been concerned about the board before the slug crawled on it, and if you treat the board well enough to stave off Salmonella you will be pretty safe from lungworm.