[Dixielandjazz] But Can You Still Play The Blues?

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Bacteria hitching a ride on rented band instruments

(Massachusetts-NBC) October 3, 2006 - This time of year many kids are 
joining band
to learn to play an instrument, but it turns out, the instrument they choose 
could
make them sick. Lab studies find bacteria can grow inside your child's 
instrument.

One Massachusetts school is doing something to prevent illness.
Medford High School students play in the band to learn about music, but now 
they're
learning that playing an instrument could make them sick.

Dr. Lorenzo Lepore, Maestromd founder, says, "Bacteria will grow in the 
moist dark
environment inside the lumen's of musical instruments and so sitting dormant 
for
months sometimes will result in a surge of bacterial growth that sometimes 
can cause
disease."

Most students rent their instruments, which have been used by other students 
before
them.

Loni-Anne Sanford is a student at Medford High. "I shared an instrument that 
other
people have used before," she admits.
And while they're cleaned, they're "not" sterilized.

Dr. Lepore says, "We've seen staph growth, strep growth, we've actually been 
able
to prove that bugs, bacteria that will cause diseases like meningitis and 
tuberculosis
will grow inside these moist dark environments."

That's why Medford High School is using Maestro MD, a first-of-its-kind 
service that
sterilizes musical instruments "before" they're rented to students.
The sterilization process takes 10 days, instruments are sealed in plastic 
and returned
to the young musicians germ-free.

Fine Arts Director Marsha Caron says, "It's very gratifying to have this 
available
so we can help to ensure the safety and the health of our students."
And student Joe Dibenedetto is also pleased, "After knowing how many people 
have
played this and just how dirty it gets ... I am definitely happy about 
this."

The service costs $50 to $80 to sterilize an instrument depending on the 
size.

Posted 1:30pm by
Bryce Mursch
www.worldnow.com/


--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
916/806-9551
www.ringwald.com
--
Leader, The Fulton Street Jazz Band
www.fultonstreetjazz.com
--
The Boondockers (jazz and Comedy)
www.theboondockers.com

>From "Hollywood Squares"
 Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: "If you hold their little heads under water long enough."