ake this for what it's worth. Jane TRUE STORY. HAPPENED IN JULY,1999

A stock clerk was sent to clean up a storeroom at their Maui, Hawaii location. When he got back, he was complaining that the storeroom was really filthy, and that he had noticed dried mouse or rat droppings in some areas. Couple of days later, he started feeling like he was coming down with stomach flu, achy joints, headache, and he started throwing up. He went to bed and never really got up. Within two days he was so ill and weak. His blood sugar count was down to 66 and his face and eyeballs were yellow. He was rushed to the emergency room at Pali Momi, where they said he was suffering from massive organ failure! He died shortly before midnight. None of us would have ever made the connection between his job and his death, but the doctors specifically asked if he had been in a warehouse or exposed to dried rat or mouse droppings at any time. They said there is a virus (much like Hanta virus) that lives in dried rat and mouse droppings. Once dried, these droppings are like dust, and can easily be or ingested if a person is not careful to wash their hands and face thoroughly, or wear protective gear. An autopsy was conducted to verify the doctors' suspicions. This is why YOU MUST carefully rinse off the tops of any canned sodas or foods, and wipe off pasta packaging, cereal boxes, etc. Almost everything you buy in a supermarket was stored in a warehouse at one time or another, and stores themselves often have rodents. Most of us remember to wash vegetables and fruit but never think of boxes and cans. The ugly truth is... even the most modern, upper-class, super store has rats and mice. And their Warehouse most assuredly does! Whenever you buy any canned soft drink, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap, or if not available, drink with a straw. A brief investigation by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta of soda cans discovered that the top of soda cans can be encrusted with dried rat's urine which is toxic and lethal! Canned drinks and other foodstuffs are stored in warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents and then get transported to the retail outlets without being properly cleaned.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), January 25, 2000

Answers

i can't answer to the specifics of this story but there is an old urban legend which is circulating the net which is very similar to this story. i guess it may be remotely possible that this is true, but let's have some specifics then. some links,names, etc so we can track this down. my strong hunch is that this is a hoax. of course, i do not recommend playing or working in an area contaminated by rhodent droppings. personally, we have 7 cats, and never have any problems with mice. (we live on a small farmstead)

-- boop (leafyspurge@hotmail.com), January 25, 2000.

That ain't just chocklit in them Hershey Bars!!!

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), January 25, 2000.

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/raturine.htm

Rat Urine

Claim: Rat urine is toxic to humans.

Status: False.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1998]

Whenever you buy a can of coke or whatever, please make sure that you wash the top with running water and soap or if not available drink with a straw.

A family friend's friend died after drinking a can of soda! Apparently, she didn't clean the top before drinking from the can. The top was encrusted with dried rat's urine which is toxic and obviously lethal!!!!! Canned drinks and other food stuff are stored in warehouses and containers that are usually infested with rodents and then get transported to the retail outlets without being properly cleaned.

So you know what to do from now on folks. Please forward this message to the people you care about...

Origins: This chilling bit of e-mail began circulating on the Internet in October, 1998. In keeping with standard scarelore, the name of the victim and where and when this happened are not included in the story (although the writer informs us that the victim was "a family friend's friend" in an attempt to establish his connection to the events described), and a search of news items fails to turn up anything about anyone's having died in this fashion. Lacking such confirmation, we're safe in dismissing this e-mailed scare as nothing more than a cautionary tale.

In September 1999 the following variation on the "deadly rat excretions" theme turned up on the Internet:

A stock clerk was sent to clean up a storeroom at their Maui location. When he got back, he was complaining that the storeroom was really filthy, and that he had noticed dried mouse or rat droppings in some areas.

A couple of days later, he started feeling like he was coming down with stomach flu, achy joints, headache, and he started throwing up. He went to bed and never really got up. Within two days he was so ill and weak. His blood sugar count was down to 66 and his face and eyeballs were yellow.

He was rushed to the emergency at Pali Momi, where they said he was suffering from massive organ failure! The doctor, in ER, transferred him to St. Francis Hospital and notifies all his relatives as he didn't have long to live.

In ICU of St. Francis Hospital, a team of doctors were trying desperately to stabilize him. They said that even if by some miracle he pulled through, he would need a new liver, kidneys, pancreas and bladder.

He died shortly before midnight.

None of us would have ever made the connection between his job and his death, but the doctors specifically asked if he had been in a warehouse or exposed to dried rat or mouse droppings at any time. They said there is a virus (much like Hanta virus) that lives in dried rat and mouse droppings. Once dried, these droppings are like dust, and can be easily inhaled or ingested if a person is not careful to wash their hands and face thoroughly, or wear protective gear. An autopsy is being conducted to verify the doctors' suspicions and tissue samples have been sent to the CDC in Atlanta.

Please be extremely careful to always rinse off the tops of any canned sodas or foods, and wipe off pasta packaging, cereal boxes, etc. Almost everything you buy in a supermarket was stored in a warehouse at one time or another, and stores themselves often have rodents. I worked in grocery wholesaling long enough to know that even the cleanest store has mice or rats.

Despite the vividness of the story, nothing about such a death turns up in the news. There is no record of anyone -- store clerk or otherwise -- dying at the St. Francis Hospital after coming in contact with rodent droppings.

Adding further to this story's implausibility are the questions raised by the few checkable details offered in the text. The St. Francis Hospital is in Honolulu as is the Pali Momi Medical Center. Honolulu is on the island of Oahu. We're told the doomed store clerk was working in Maui. Someone who'd become ill on Maui would have gone to a medical facility on that island, not travelled by air or sea 75 miles to visit an emergency room on another island.

Most scares contain a vague whiff of plausibility, and this is true with both stories listed above. Although there is nothing inherently toxic about urine or feces from a healthy rat (you could probably ingest it all day, were you so inclined), excretions from a sick rat are another kettle of fish, and perhaps that is what this bit of scarelore is addressing. There have been several rat urine stories in the news of late.

Leptospirosis, better known as Weil's disease, is a potentially deadly illness caused by bacteria passed along to humans in contact with urine from diseased animals (rats, frogs, rabbits, snakes, pigs and dogs). It is picked up rurally from swimming in contaminated lakes and reservoirs. In cities, the bacteria are passed along more easily -- people splashing through puddles in areas that have a large rodent population might contract the disease, and eating or drinking contaminated food and water is always a danger. Leptospirosis can also be contracted by rubbing eyes with dirty hands. People with open cuts and wounds are especially vulnerable to the bacteria, as it can be picked up almost anywhere.

As the rat population in cities grows, so does the potential for contact with this disease.

Leptospirosis typically causes aches, pains and fever that go away on their own. One in ten cases includes high fever, jaundice, meningitis (inflammation of the brain lining), acute kidney failure, internal bleeding and, occasionally, death. Victims can die if they develop serious kidney or liver complications. In extreme cases, death follows three to six days after infection. The disease is treatable with antibiotics.

In November 1998 leptospirosis killed eight people and hospitalized one hundred in China. In the same month in 1997, 22 people died from the same cause out of the 300 who were infected with it. In the United States, 100 to 200 cases of leptospirosis occur each year (with about half of those in Hawaii), according to the Center for Disease Control.

Another disease passed on through rat urine is hantavirus. It is transmitted to humans through breathing in particles of an infected rodent's urine, droppings or saliva. The virus becomes airborne when excrement dries. Early symptoms mimic the flu and can progress to respiratory failure. Since 1993, 21 deaths in the United States have been blamed on this disease.

In general, urine-encrusted soda cans are not the most likely purveyors of these diseases. Most cans of soda are packaged into cardboard boxes while still on the production line and thus aren't at any risk of contamination. Additionally, once bottlers have mixed soft drink syrup is with soda water and sweetener, they try to get the finished product to the consumer as expeditiously as possible. Soft drink bottlers don't warehouse large inventories of finished product for any length of time -- freshness is everything, so the product is moved out quickly, leaving little opportunity for rodents to use the tops of cans as latrines. Moreover, any rats living in bottling plants are going to be hanging out where they find can food, and the best place for them to find food is where the product ingredients are mixed. There's little or nothing for a rat to dine on in the finished product area.

Nonetheless, it's still always a good idea to wipe off cans from exposed six-packs or those dispensed from drink machines, if for no other reason than to avoid picking up something passed on by the human handlers of the product.

Barbara "errata" Mikkelson

Last updated: 29 October 1999

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/toxins/raturine.htm

Please use this URL in all links or references to this page

Urban Legends Reference Pages ) 1995-2000 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson

Sources:

Collins, Jeff. "Hantavirus Found in San Clemente Mice." The Orange County Register. 15 September 1993 (p. A1).

Roylance, Frank. "Rat-Borne Illness Found to Be Inner-City Hazard." The Baltimore Sun. 1 February 1997 (p. B1).

Bangkok Post. "Uncommon Rat Urine Disease Kills 8, Hospitalizes 100." 4 November 1998.

Bangkok Post. "Illness Caused by Rat Urine Kills 22." 13 November 1997 (p. 4).

The Irish Times. "Board Issues Disease Warning." 11 April 1997 (p. 4).

Reuters. "Rat Urine Blamed for Eight Deaths." 4 November 1998.

Reuters. "Rat Urine Toll Climbs to 22." 5 November 1998.

-- Postman (ringstwice@lw.ays), January 25, 2000.

Your right Proky, it may not be the chocolate people are allergic to, it could be the ground up cockroaches.

-- ~~~~ (~~~@~~~.xcom), January 25, 2000.

From what I Learned (since my Mother-in-law works at the CDC Atlanta in a high position), the hanta virus is found in the excrement of a rat or field mouse/rat and when dried can turn into dust form and when swept can become aireborn thus inhaled and embedded in nasal passages. From there you are SOL. 50 % chance to survive.

-- Feller (feller@wanna.help), January 25, 2000.

As part of our Y2K preps, we bought a country home that needed extensive repairs and reconditioning. It had been infested, literally overrun, by rats and mice. We hired professional pest control, but the cleanup was up to us. We wore *respirator* masks for maximum protection every time we did anything to disturb the droppings/urine. We vacuumed rather than swept. People have died from hanta virus as a result of cleaning up rodent droppings not far from here, so we were *very* cautious since the virus is so deadly.

There are still plenty of critters outdoors, but we finally have the house under control!

-- (snoozin@no.more), January 25, 2000.

"I can't answer to the specifics of this story but there is an old urban legend which is circulating the net which is very similar to this story. I guess it may be remotely possible that this is true, but let's have some specifics then. some links,names, etc so we can track this down. my strong hunch is that this is a hoax."

You are wrong. Next to mosquitos, rats are probably the biggest disease spreaders on the planet, and have been proven to be the vector in numerous epidemic outbreaks around the planet. This is very well documented though I don't know about on websites. Two books in my library that mention rat urine as a vector are "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett and "Virus Hunter" by CJ Peters. Diseases other than Hantavirus are spread this way too (such as Bolivian Hemmoragic Fever).

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), January 25, 2000.

These maps show the incidence of hantavirus by state. Much of the Southeast seems to be free of it, so far.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 25, 2000.

ok, so maybe we don't have to worry about hanta virus but i used to be a grocery store checker in my teens and i can tell you of two horror stories i witnessed personally:

1) mouse in a CAN of soda 2) can of soda with the most gawd awful mixture of bugs and thick syruppy stuff you ever saw.

i always vowed i would stick a straw in any can of soda first before i drank from it but obviously i have not maintained my vow.

i did happen to have another horror story in a chinese restaurant. i WILL name names!! Yen Cheng in Herndon VA. i was eating dinner and felt something WIGGLING IN MY MOUTH. YESSSSSS. IN MY MOUTH. i quickly spit it out and there was a live cockroach. guess what they did--they gave me a free fruit salad and didn't seem all that concerned. i was such a wimp i didn't demand my money back. these days, there would have been hell to pay!!!!

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 25, 2000.

Years ago, a teacher friend said she took a group of children to a pickle factory near our community and she said they all saw a rat run into the vat of pickles that were being ground up for relish. The line didn't even hiccup, but kept right on with its process. The 'canners' saw it as well, but didn't think it important enough to stop the process.

She says she has never again eaten pickles.

I have always rinsed off cans, including pop cans; also cheese and processed meat packages, or anything that can be. Pasta packages or rice or beans might not need it, because one boils the water they are prepared in, and then cooks them for a time long enough to kill bacteria.

Are the hantaviruses, etc. killed in this process? Any experts who know on this thread?

By the way, I sometimes am chided for this practice, as though I'm too concerned. I really appreciate this posting, 'cause I can print it out and show these hecklers!

Thanks

-- Connie (hive@gte.net), January 25, 2000.

About two months ago I saw a mouse in the grocery store. It ran out from under the shelves holding the cereals and went to the shelves on the other side of the isle. I pointed it out to my hubby who had worked in grocery stores in his youth. His comment "there are mice and rats in all stores." I have been very careful to check out every box and bag for signs of contamination ever sense. I always wash off cans before opening them. Who knows what might be on them.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), January 26, 2000.

Milk bottles! Milk bottles! Usually they sit on the floor of one's car or in the trunk and you don't want to transport whatever adheres to the bottom of the bottle. So a minute under running water from top to bottom is wise.

Also, when you open the bottle, you don't want to contaminate the milk, for the reason that bacteria multply very quickly in milk.

-- Connie (hive@gte.net), January 26, 2000.