Flotsam & jetsam

Sam Smith - I have long attributed my good health in part to the fact that I spent my first ten years in a house built on a trash dump. I was well along in life before I realized that all dirt wasn't mixed with metal and broken glass. And as a teenager I worked on a farm, so I was pleased to see this in Eco Watch:

"Growing up in a rural area exposed to farm animals appears to confer a decreased risk of allergies and asthma for your entire lifetime, even among genetically similar populations. Studies in mice have shown that inhaling certain molecules from soil-dwelling bacteria can set off a beneficial cascade promoting an immune system which focuses more on threats rather than nonthreats, such as allergens."