Cookies
4540
Yes it is
Jun 02, 2020,09:05 AM
On a microscopic level, leather has a large surface area that can trap things (like a fishing net). This includes microbes like bacteria, archaea, fungus and viruses etc. Next, leather is biodegradable, and theoretically speaking, leather is constantly being decomposed by whichever microbe has the enzymes to break it down.
After some wear, we accumulate stuff like sweat, salt, dead skin in the leather, which serve as fodder for microbes like bacteria and fungus.
Viruses are non-living, so I will exclude them. But they can be entrapped more easily in leather owing to the structure of leather compared to other materials such as silicone and rubber and metal. The key here is surface area (nooks and crannies where they embed).
Therefore in hospitals settings, docs and nurses seldom wear watches, let alone one with a leather strap. My colleagues sometimes wear apple watches with a silicone strap, or some other docs may wear typical luxury watches with bracelets when they are on days with little contact with patients. Watches are kept away when scrubbing down for surgeries.
Frequent hand washes will make leather straps rot faster. Therefore it is not practical.
The greatest fear is wearing a leather strap infested with MRSA (methicilin resistant bacteria) and bringing it around. MRSA is very prevalent in hospitals, by the way. When one gets infected by it, it is annoyingly hard to recover, as only a few antibiotics will be effective against these tough bacteria.
Therefore, the moral of the story is, watches and healthcare are incompatible in many ways, unless one is a humble General Practitioner sitting in an office daily with little physical contact with patients.
God bless and keep safe!