h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In Sol's NaJo, she bewailed the fact that new schools=new germs, and asked who could've predicted the rounds and rounds of colds her family's been suffering this school year. Well, anyone that works in a school

Every school year, new students come in, bringing new germs with them. This year hasn't been so bad--then again, our room started the year with only 2 new students. You see, I work in a special education class, so we hold on to the same students for a few years.

Or the fewer health problems so far could be related to the fact that our class changed rooms this year (for the first time in 20 years). We have storage! And running water! And we don't have to get wet every time we leave the room on a rainy day! Which, besides the obvious, means we don't have to try to shove a ream's-worth of copies under our coats to keep them dry! The biggest difference, health-wise, was something I didn't even realize until they started fixing up the old portable. Once the skirting was removed, you could smell mold from 100 feet away, for half a week. Not just a little, reminds-one-pleasantly-of-compost smell (which shouldn't be coming out from under a mostly-wood raised building, if you think about it...), but a thick, choking, cover-your-nose-and/or-hold-your-breath-as-you-pass smell. No wonder I've been constantly run down the last few years! I thought 'twas stress and the revolving door of students (and last year, teachers) we'd been having, which I'm sure wasn't helpful. And no wonder we had some students with constantly running noses. This year is much better, so far.

I remember being on a training course in a building in Ashington where there was always a damp smell which was worst near the kitchen and the toilet. It was a normal damp smell but it was on the chemically side.

I find that 'mild rainy' winters are the worst for colds and other winter flu bugs.