[at-l] Sleeping Bags

[thornel at attglobal.net (W F Thorneloe)]

No, you are jumping to a couple of conclusions. The bacteria that eat human 
sweat and oils aren't all that nasty, as they get rid of weight that we add 
to the bag. They live with us, and are the reason we are so "fragrant" when 
sweating and hiking for several days.

Dampness isn't inherent in well designed sleeping bags with good covering. 
Your body heat serves as a nearly 100 F furnace to force vapor from the bag 
and out into the surrounding environment. If you are in a tent, you see it 
as condensation. If you sleep in a tarp or shelter, you don't see the vapor 
at all. You can even use the bag to dry wet clothes, if you are judicious 
about how much clothing at a time, and waiting until the bag is warm. Your 
bag gets bacteria, mites and smelly because any good hiker brings that 
stuff into the bag with them. Once the critters have feasted on Eau de You, 
they die out from starvation. Each time a sweaty hiker climbs into the bag, 
the cycle repeats.

Fabreeze does something to mask the fragrance. I don't know what it does to 
the fabric, hence I'd check with the bag manufacturer before using the 
stuff. I use it everywhere else, including me.

OrangeBug

At 06:21 AM 10/25/2004 -0400, Shelly Hale wrote:
>So, you're telling me that Febreeze can actually kill all of those nasty
>little bacteria that occur naturally on our bodies, but whose unbalanced
>growth is encouraged by dampness that can be inherent to sleeping bags due
>to trapped vapors, poor DWR, and other such factors?
>
>Or...does Febreeze only treat the material so that we can no longer detect
>the smells created by bacteria (but the bacteria is nevertheless still
>there)?  And, if so...once the bag is used again and gets damp again...does
>the bag become a breeding ground again for those nasty little critters?
>
>Hmmm...