Holy water not always a blessing

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7280.190/a

BMJ 2001;322:190 ( 27 January )

News

Holy water not always a blessing

Doug Payne, Dublin

It may be holy, but it might not be very healthy. For the second time in four years competitors in the Irish Young Scientistcontest have been examining holy water $---$ and their findings suggestthat some fonts arefilthy.

Three 14 year old girls from County Kildare were the latest to examine fonts at local churches after one of them developeda rash on her forehead after blessing herself with holy water.Tiny green worms about half a centimetre long turned up in onefont they tested while large quantities of dirt showed up inothers.

Although the project $---$ one of 470 by nearly 2000 students $---$ was originally intended to compare outdoor with indoor fonts, theyoung researchers found dirt in both. The eggs for the tiny greenworms posed the greatest threat to health, but the girls wereunable to suggest a solution. At the very least, they concluded,"there should be someone there to clean the water and to takeout anything that is big enough to beseen."

In a 1998 entry from County Clare in the annual science fair, three girls grew bacterial cultures from holy water. They foundcoliforms, staphylococcus, yeasts, andmoulds.

Two years ago some churches in Dublin removed fonts from church vestibules after the discovery that drug addicts were washingor rinsing their syringes in the fonts.

(Credit: COLLECTIONS/MICHAEL DIGGIN)

© BMJ 2001

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