Sometimes, we at Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages like to take a moment and do something a little different than the usual SEO and social media tips. It’s always fun to challenge a persistent myth, and for this round, we decided it would be interesting to talk about garbage disposals, their history, and of course, just how dangerous these modern conveniences can be. Let’s take a closer look at the history of garbage disposals, and then we’ll segue into the “You could lose a hand!” question!
History of the Garbage Disposal
The first garbage disposal design was proposed by an architect, John W. Hammes, of Racine, Wisconsin, who was looking for ways to make kitchen cleanup easier for his wife. The initial design, which Hammes called an “electric pig” after the porcine tendency to devour anything that could even loosely be defined as food, relied on a system of blades to pulverize leftover food and even small bones into particles that could pass through the sewer or septic system without blocking it up, then flush them away. Hammes, who went on to found the InSinkErator company in 1940, was awarded a patent in 1935 for the garbage disposal. However, garbage disposals didn’t become commonplace in American homes until after World War II, when the homebuilding boom for former GIs and their families kicked into high gear. Spurred on by a robust economy, these nascent Baby Boomers wanted every possible convenience, and that meant “electric pigs” were a hot commodity.
Over the years, of course, the patent protection Hammes enjoyed ran out, and competitors to InSinkErator cropped up virtually overnight. Whirlpool, General Electric, Kitchenaid, and other companies came out with their own riffs and modifications to the original garbage disposal design. Today, it’s unusual to find a home that doesn’t have a garbage disposal!
This leads us to the persistent story that you can lose a hand down a garbage disposal.
But is it true?
The basic design of a garbage disposal hasn’t changed much: a series of blades powered by an electric motor of between ⅓ and one horsepower (HP) chews up discarded food, cutting it into small chunks that can easily pass a built-in filter. These blades are the problem in this situation. Not only are they almost certainly covered in germs and bacteria, but they’re extremely sharp. As any plumber knows, you should always disconnect the power from a garbage disposal and use kitchen tweezers or tongs to remove blockages from the unit, never, EVER your bare hands!
Now, let’s look at the design of the human hand.
Human skin and flesh are surprisingly tough, especially when you consider how the bones, muscles, and tendons within the hand strengthen it and lend it structural support. Also, adult human finger bones tend to be far larger and denser than the usual things on which you can and should use a garbage disposal.
For all the toughness and power of the human hand, however, it’s no match for a garbage disposal.
The horror-movie notion that sticking one’s hand in a garbage disposal while it’s running will result in a relatively clean amputation is, of course, nonsense. The blades will cut up the skin and beat up the bones and tendons within the hand pretty badly, but the idea that a garbage disposal can turn your hand into so much strawberry jam is an invention of Hollywood. If the injury to the hand is extensive enough, it could result in amputation by a surgeon, which is just barely enough to push this urban legend out of the myth category and into the realm of the plausible. However, that’s like blaming an air hammer for going off because you put it against your foot and activated it.
The bigger, more immediate risk is that of infection. Remember we talked earlier about how those blades that chop up food into particles small enough to pass through the filter are covered in germs? If those dirty blades pierce the skin, that introduces every bug, critter, and microorganism on those blades into the body. If one is lucky, the absolute best-case scenario is that they’ll get sick, have to take antibiotics and practice some fairly industrial-strength wound care. One step worse, skin grafts may be needed. And beyond that, our unfortunate example can look forward to exploring the wonderful world of prosthetic limbs after the mangled hand comes off in the operating room.
So, can you lose a hand down a garbage disposal? By the “According to Hoyle” definition, no.
Is it still a good idea not to stick your hand down a garbage disposal? Yes!
Be sure to keep watching this space for more articles like this one. And if you’re looking for a one-stop digital marketing solution for your plumbing business, Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages is here and ready to help. Just click the Contact link above to get in touch with us!
