Disappearing teaspoons: Teabags and forks are confounding factors

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.121-a

BMJ 2006;332:121 (14 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.121-a

Letter

Disappearing teaspoons

Teabags and forks are confounding factors

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—The valuable piece of research by Lim et al willbe circulated as urgent reading around my primary care trust,where institutional attrition of teaspoons may be a factor inthe ongoing financial crisis for the NHS.¹

However, I suggest that the research team consider using a parallelsupply of marked "forks" as well as teaspoons and monitor attritionalloss again in a more in-depth study across a range of healthcareinstitutions. In England, where tea drinking often exceeds useof instant coffee in institutions, in the absence of availableteaspoons (or clean spoons) tea drinkers will often use a forkto remove the teabag from their cup during the preparation ofthe beverage. This obviously is not an option available to coffeedrinkers; one would therefore suspect that tearooms where coffeedrinkers predominate would experience a higher rate of spoonloss. Therefore, a potential confounding factor in the study. . . [Full text of this article]

Alan A Woodall, specialist registrar public health medicine

Telford Primary Care Trust, Somerfield House, Telford TF1 5RY woodall@doctors.org.uk

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