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Why You Should Never Lick Envelopes


vampgirl

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What you don't know, wont hurt you, but this one it sure is worth knowing. I used to work for an envelope company. Our plant supervisor used to work in the Chicago plant and told us not to lick the envelopes because they would often find dead rats at the bottom of the glue barrel (after thousands of envelopes had been glued and shipped).

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I work in a factory and we have 2 employees who used to work in an envelope factory. They told me that when the machine jams up, they use whatever water is handy to thin out the glue. This includes water that they just mopped the floor with. Since then, I've avoided licking envelopes!

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A woman was working in a post office in California. One day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge. That very day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope.

A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, but they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything.

A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor took an x-ray of her tongue and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery. When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live cockroach crawled out! There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist. This is a true story reported on CNN.

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I used to work in an envelope factory. You wouldn't believe the things that float around in those gum applicator trays. I haven't licked an envelope for years!

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I used to work for a print shop (32 years ago) and we were told NEVER to lick the envelopes. I never understood why until I had to go into storage and pull out 2500 envelops that were already printed for a customer who was doing a mailing and saw several squads of roaches roaming around inside a couple of boxes with eggs everywhere. They eat the glue on the envelopes. I think print shops have a harder time controlling roaches than a restaurant. I always buy the self-sealing

type. Or if need be, I use a glue stick to seal one that has the type of glue that needs to be wet to stick.

After reading this you will never lick another envelope or stamp ever again.source

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Oh. My. God. You haev just scared the bejeesus out of me... blink.gif

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eh.... no way I'll be licking any envelopes

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Self sealing are your best bet now-a-days. Who would want a roach crawling out of their tongue??? I wonder how she reacted when the wold her that. huh.gif

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Most of those sound like Urban legends to me but...

blink.gif I've licked like 3000 envelopes doing mail outs on my work experience at an estate agents in the last week ohmy.gif

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Vampgirl, I think you have just persuaded everyone use email rather than snail mail post anymore interesting story. The local post mistress in our post office would never lick envelopes, she said each envelope added 5 calories to your diet.

Edited by XSAS
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The roach in the tongue thing is an urban myth.

While kinda gross, dead rats/bugs in huge vats of glue wouldn't really do anything to you. Extra protein in the envelope glue?

I don't lick them. They taste gross, and who wants glue all over their tongue?

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Well i never heard the likes no.gif i always lick my wifes envelope and nothing has happened to me tongue.giftongue.giftongue.gif

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yeah, the 'roach-eggs-in-the-tongue' thing was also bandied about as a taco bell legend too.

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lol and i just licked a envelope shut last night argh >.<

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Yup, roach egg in tongue = urban legend. Roaches' egg sacs (oothecas) are large enought you would never miss them on an envelope. Plus, they are not constructed to be parasites---the digestive acids in your mouth and saliva would kill them.

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Absolutely positively GROSS! I buy the self seal thankyou very much! w00t.gif

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I now have a weird craving for envelope glue. hmm.gif

If it's good enough for cockroaches...

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My licking is done here... that would be nasty though to find out that you had a roach living inside your tongue.........

But that would be a funny story to tell your friends... tongue.gif

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*puts post-it note in mind to always use sponge to wet envelopes* That just sick.

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Whether any of it is true or not I won't be licking any more envelopes... crying.gif

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No offense, but I think we've got the general idea that no-one wants to lick envelope glue any more...

We'd rather leave a surplus supply of envelope glue lying around various vermon-contaminated factories, so the overall populus of cockroaches increases, eventually to alarming rates nearing infestation levels. But at least we wouldn't have to lick any envelopes no more...

Twisted or what? Or am I taking things too far... hmm.giftongue.gif

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tongue.gif Yeah, you've taken it a bit too far. We could always use the envelope glue in roach hotels...
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>sigh< I give up. Some legends just won't die. No matter how silly.

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Thanks for the link Tommy, but, alas, I fear it will not change anyone's mind, nor stem the flow of earnest e-mails passing this 'dire' warning to all and sundry.

grin2.gif

On a related note: Why do people get such a thrill out of passing these rumours along? I never could understand it.

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You know, even if there were no bugs and/or dead rats in the glue vats (and the "roachtongue" story having been disproved wink2.gif), glue just doesn't seem to me to be that salubrious a thing to let your tongue touch anyway.

You all DO know what sorts of things they make glue out of, right? huh.gif

(If not, ask someone else. I've got a week stomach! tongue.gif)

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