No urban myths here, no legends nothing but molten truth: Outdoors at
a show where it turned out the sellers/vendors not the jewelers that
made the objects, spread a staff infection due to their hand having a
particularly nasty strain of it apparently, as four women all were in
hospital due to the sellers from French Guyana passing the problem
on- six weeks for the victims in this case with IV antibiotics…
Isolated incident _absolutely-well probably!!! But it did alert me to
the extra measures involved with outdoors sales and what if those
people, then came to my booth and wanted to try on earrings and i had
a rather L’asaisez faire attitude about it…problem grows, I am
liable…No thank you- when they got to my booth they would have heard
the health department line i posted earlier… “sorry but the health
department does not allow that…” given that I’m not selling 1200. 00
a pair earrings at the outdoor venue…
Indoors, never heard of one single example, except, the time that it
Happened to a friend that contracted it from a worker, not the
Manufacturer in a high end retail store, at which the worker turned
out to be an IV drug user and was passing along a nice case of
granulo-something…it made the skin on the earlobe look like it had
dermatitis that left hard lumpy little spots on an enlarged
earlobe…some weird bacteria from a shop in South Carolina, the
worker was a well educated “old money” type that passed on the
problem. . Personally --in a climate controlled store with well
trained staff…Mirrors, sterilizing equipment, etc… Fine…still-
I’m more the waiver type and would would be wishing I had posted A
gigantic release declaration at the entrance to the earring salon
part of my Store…as i let each person that seemed genuinely
interested in the pair, or single pieces ( i’m so PC!!) try them on
after swiping their ears with a peroxide gel, or peroxide and
alcohol prep pack… or invent a clip that could be made of clear
silicone/plastic/vinyl that an earring could be slipped through it
to give the appearance of what it would look like, and the weight, on
the wearer…I’d much rather spend R& D money than get a liability
suit slapped on because a worker did not wash their hands or the
person had a raging infection behind their ear…could happen, could
not…There are so many variables when it all comes down to money
anyway. that I would put the price points high enough so that no one
not able to afford them wouldn’t ask ask to “try them on” in the
first place…which may be snobbish, but…in all my years as a
jeweler, i can count on one hand the people that asked to try on
earrings, and my sales were consistently in the 28-35% realm of
overall sales, largest being rings, 2ed pendants/brooches, 3rd
necklaces ( other than chains) smallest being suites of
necklace/pendant earrings and perhaps another piece included…so
there you have it molten truth about actual stories observed wither
firsthand, or secondhand while at a hospital visiting a relative,
and on the smoking porch with a patient that had an IV drip due to
the vendor’s staff infection spreading… whew!!that was wordy - even
for me…-
In about 30 years I’ve never heard of a problem. I sometimes wear an
opal stud and I’ve never had a problem. I went to a tattoo place to
get the piercing.
I tried having an alcohol wipe available to clean them after
someone tried on a pair, but this was smelly and inconvenient. But
I can only remember one case where a customer expressed some
concern. Unexpressed, who knows? I'll be curious to see what the
women say.
I think it is a good practice to have the swabs, and use them before
and after. Just yesterday at an art fair, I had the usual situations
come up–
a woman awkwardly holding earrings up to her ear. I held out a
swab packet, and said, “Feel free to try them on!” She accepted the
swab, tried on the earrings, and bought them.
A woman asked to see earrings, and prepared to try them on. I
couldn’t have stopped her without a confrontation! I said “let me
get you a swab.” She waited, accepted the swab, thanked me, saying
her ears get irritated really easily, and used it (then rejected the
earrings… oh, well.)
It doesn’t seem odious (or smelly) to me. I don’t really believe it
is necessary, but it shows concern for your customers.
I tried having an alcohol wipe available to clean them after
someone tried on a pair, but this was smelly and inconvenient.
I let them try them on if they ask. However, I always say, “let me
clean them off for you,” beforehand. I then clean them with hydrogen
peroxide. Very few will ask to try them on and not buy. Either way, I
clean them again with the peroxide; before packaging them up, or
putting them back. I keep a bottle of peroxide & cotton balls for
this purpose. I have read that it is a pretty effective
disinfectant, and customers, including those watching, are generally
reassured about the care I provide.
However, just did a Google on disinfectants and this experiment
showed an interesting result. Maybe we should all switch to using
Pinesol or Ajax.
the area where the ear wire goes through is basically the same as
any outer skin on your body.
I don’t know if you have your ears pierced, but I can assure you
that it’s NOT always just like the skin on your hand. Pierced ears
can very easily get infected, sometimes just a tiny bit, even 20
years later, even 40 years later, and some people have more trouble
with it than others. Now, that being said, I think it’s probably made
OK by using some alcohol wipes after someone’s tried them on, I don’t
think it’s that major of an issue unless you can tell they are having
a real problem with their ears. When I have people in my booth,
though, I prefer it if they don’t try them on, rather just hold them
up to their ears. Maybe in part because someone else in the booth
might be creeped out by it! Anyway, sometimes the piece is just too
hard to see correctly without putting it on, or they just put it on
before I can say something, then I make sure to clean it well with
alcohol (I have a stash of wipes with me) before I put it back in the
case. I’m assuming that the reason this has become an issue over the
years is that not enough stores/vendors do clean them before putting
them back, so it’s gotten to where some areas don’t allow them to
even be tried on (is that a state-level issue?), just to be sure
nothing bad happens. Maybe someone had a problem years back after
trying on an earring, someone got sued, who knows. But, please do
know that it’s really not the same as holding it in your hand. Not
all the time, anyway.
Any opinion on whether that stuff out of a pump bottle, which is used
to disinfect hands, would be of any use in disinfecting ear wires?
I’m thinking, put some on a little piece of paper towel and scrub the
earwire, then wipe it dry with another little piece of paper towel.
But, please do know that it's really not the same as
holding it in your hand.
Well I don’t know about you, but most jewelers I know (including
myself) constantly have small cuts on their hands. For that matter I
don’t think there’s been a week that I’ve been working where I don’t
have some kind of small open wound. So for me trying on an earring
with a small open cut in the ear isn’t going to be a whole lot
different than shaking hands with the person. And yes I do have four
active holes in my ears.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
spread a staff infection due to their hand having a particularly
nasty strain of it apparently, as four women all were in hospital
due to the sellers from French Guyana passing the problem
See, but that’s what I’m saying. It’s as dangerous (or not) to try
earrings on as to shake hands with the person. These people (if I
understand your posting) passed a disease with skin to skin to
contact not because earrings were being tried on. So if you’re going
to live your life as a disease paranoid (R.E. this is not directed
specifically at you) don’t shake hands, wear a face mask at all
times, and get yourself one of those bubbles to live in. Or go out
there and make a lot of beautiful jewelry so when you do die from
whatever disease claims you you’ve left a little mark in the world.
Remember, as a bumper sticker I once saw said: Eat Well, Stay Fit,
Die Anyway.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
Just to put things in a quantitative perspective, as I have posted
before we sell thousands of sterling earrings a month, we have been
at this location for 15 years, if 10% of the woman try on earrings,
that is about 30,000 times with not one reported incident. We have
always used alcohol, until we started using these antibacterial gels.
I would love to clean evey pair of earrings people try on in my
booth, but when you have 5 or 6 customers all trying on several
pairs at one time, it's impossible to keep up with proper
cleaning. Quite honestly, I think the whole cleaning thing is blown
out of proportion because I am not convinced that wiping a wire
with rubbing alcohol is going to thoroughly clean it and, like it's
been said - people's hands are probably dirtier than their ears.
Your post gave me chills.
I hope none of your customers are HIV positive. Most states have
laws against letting people put pierced earrings in their ears
without VERY positive chemical cleaning before and after.
P.S. Bacitracin and neosporin are over the counter and can be used
to prevent infection for newly pierced ears. For women that complain
of having trouble with irritation when wearing earrings, I suggest
that they get one or the other, and put it on each time they wear the
earrings and see if it helps. I am suggestion that they do this
before buying anything new. For some reason, no one tells me of
success or failure if they tried it.
Here in the UK I have never known any shop that allows customers to
try on earrings for pierced ears. I have pierced ears, and would not
want to try on, let alone buy, earrings that someone else had tried
on before me. What is more, most shops will not allow you to exchange
a pair of pierced-ear earrings after they have been purchased (unless
they have fallen apart) for Health and Safety reasons.
I recently lent my daughter-in-law a pair of gold studs because they
have slightly longer posts than her own ones. I boiled them for 20
minutes beforehanding them over (which is what was done to them by
the man who pierced my ears) and she did the same before giving them
back to me. That was the only way we could both safely feel that they
had been sterilised.
Maybe I am over-cautious, but I don’t feel inclined to take
avoidable risks and I would not expect my customers to do so either.
My daughter uses neosporin when changing her earrings, and that
combined with titanium wires ( worn most of the time ) have done her
ears a world of good. I think your advice is sound.
I’m with Daniel and Alma (and all the wipe em clean people) on this.
I clean them with alcohol. Earrings can look very different on ears
& trying them on is like trying on clothes at a store. People need to
see how they sit on their ears, how they hang, etc.
Daniel for your poll: I’ve never heard of a problem from trying on
earrings. And as a show jeweler people do share a lot of stuff with
me (sorta like being a bartender.)
Agreed! I for one will NEVER let an individual try on earrings, this
practice utterly disgusts me, if it costs me a sale, so be it. Walk
into ANY professional piercing studio and you will quickly realize
that you CANNOT try on jewelry in these establishments. Speak to
them and ask why.
Now if you follow this practice, at the very least move away from
alcohol and peroxide wipes. Get yourself a true anti-microbial
cleaning agent. MadaWipes FDW is on the extreme end of the spectrum,
Provon (provon.com) anti-microbial soap is good too, follow
directions with useage.
I just had to reply to this because people do not know enough about
HIV and say things that are just not true.
Without getting to technical, gross or scientific, one can only catch
HIV (human immune deficiency virus) through bodily fluids that are
NOT exposed to the air, once it is exposed to the air the virus dies.
Ask any doctor, read any book on the subject, but please be
informed.
Granted, it is of the utmost importance that one cleans off the
posts with alcohol for sanitary reasons but to catch a disease such
as HIV is impossible.
Bacitracin and neosporin are over the counter and can be used to
prevent infection for newly pierced ears. For women that complain
of having trouble with irritation when wearing earrings, I suggest
that they get one or the other, and put it on each time they wear
the earrings and see if it helps.
I developed a strong allergic reaction to Neosporin after using it
daily on my earrings. My allergist said that Neosporin is one of
those things that people can develop a sensitivity to over time, so
it should NOT be used daily like I had been doing. For the last 8
years, I’ve used nothing and I’ve had no problems.
I have not followed this thread but it has come up in the past. My
suggestion last time this discussion came up was very simple. If you
sell earrings that use wires or allow wires to be attached, simply
give the customer the wires as a gift after they have tried on the
earrings. If the earrings are gold you can change the wires over to
sterling silver for the customer to try on and then give those wires
to the customer. Sterling Silver wires are very inexpensive and the
client will appreciate the small gift. The way I do it is I use the
Sterling Silver Eurowires ( they look more valuable than kidney
wires) to give away. More often than not I actually have the
customer purchase several pair beside the pair I give them.