Stamps and Envelopes ... to Lick or NOT to Lick them!

STAMPS & ENVELOPES
I work in a factory and we have 2 employees who used
to work in an envelope factory. They told me that when the machine jams up,
they use whatever water is handy to thin out the glue. This includes water they just
mopped the floor with. Since then, I've avoided licking envelopes...

1. If you lick your envelopes... You won't anymore!!!
A woman was working in a post office in California. One day she licked the
envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge. That very day the
lady cut her tongue on the envelope A week later, she noticed an abnormal
swelling of her tongue.
She went to the doctor, but they found nothing wrong.
. A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more,
it began to get so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and
demanded something be done. The doctor took an x-ray of her tongue and noticed a lump. He
prepared her for minor surgery. When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live
cockroach crawled out!!!! There were roach eggs on the seal of the
envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva.
It was warm and moist.. .This is a true story reported on CNN.

2. Andy Hume wrote: "Hey, I used to work in an envelope factory. You
wouldn't believe the things that float around in those gum applicator trays.
I haven't licked an envelope for years!"

3. To All: I used to work for a print shop (32 years ago) and we were told
NEVER to lick the envelopes I never understood why ...........
until I had to go into storage and pull out 2500 envelops that were already
printed for a customer and saw several squads of roaches roaming around inside the boxes.
There were eggs everywhere. The roaches eat the glue on the envelopes.
I think print shops have a harder time controlling roaches than a restaurant.
I always buy the self-sealing type. Or if need be, I use a glue stick to seal the regular envelopes

PLEASE PASS THIS ON, TO YOUR FRIENDS.
After reading this you will never lick another envelope or stamp ever again

iwwwwww to that cockroach one... >o< I'll never lick an envelope again! ^_~

I've heard of that a while ago...(and still lick them sometimes -_-)

I don't usually lick envelopes or stamps anyways.. I HATE the taste of the glue.

All of this is on the hoax busters pages....which of course says untrue~

Quote:

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Originally posted by GraciesMommy
All of this is on the hoax busters pages....which of course says untrue~

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I wondered about that ... but it still makes ya think twice before licking a stamp! ;)

I do like licking the stamps because they are sweet :o

I think because this is "food grade" glue thatt they have to have tighter specs than that, but you never know!

Ewwwww.... I licked an envelope just last night.


As for the cockroach... wouldn't the outline of the cockroach have appeared on the Xray? That sounds fishy to me, even if they say that it was on CNN.

Quote:

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Originally posted by GraciesMommy
All of this is on the hoax busters pages....which of course says untrue~

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Oh, Darn. You beat me to it. I am the official 'killjoy' at work...always telling the hyperparanoid..."oh, this is not true. Check out www.snopes.com". You would think after busting the myths so many times they would stop forwarding me the doomsday things after a while...nope....


http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/tacobell.htm

LOL...same here..people at work forward things to me to find out if they are true first..I love snopes...have it in my favs at home and work..
HOWEVER..some of the things they say is not true still sounds like they could happen!! Still makes you think.

PS..I didn't even know they still have lickable stamps..I have bought self adhesives stamps for so long that I thought that was all there way..lol..

Here in Louisiana, the humidity is always so bad that if you buy those kind, you are wasting your money... You learn real quick to buy the self sticking kind... Haven't licked one in years.... they are all, already sealed.....empty!

Ah, my friend told me about this a couple years ago. Since then, I use water or whatever to seal an envelope instead. :p

Well, true or not, I'll NEVER lick another envelope ever again!!! I buy the pre-stick stamps.

We've confirmed that no one had roach eggs hatch inside their tongue, but - it is absolutely true that given the opportunity roaches eat the glue off of stamps and envelopes.

Hawaii has a lot of roaches and in our first few years of living here we noticed that our envelope glue was disappearing. At some point, we opened the stationary supply drawer to find the little buggers in the act! :eek: Needless to say, we use the self-sealing types now. Now, I don't know if other colder places have such a roach problem, but if you've so much as seen a roach in your house I would bet that he'd love to find your stationary supplies and have a sticky snack! :p

From snopes.com
Collected on the Internet, 2000]
If you lick your envelopes . . . You won't anymore!

This lady was working in a post office in California, one day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge.

That very day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope. A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, and they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything. A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get really sore, so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor, took an x-ray of her tongue, and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery.

When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live roach crawled out. There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist...

This is a true story . . . Pass it on

Everything said about cockroach eggs earlier still applies. This incarnation of the tale is every bit as much a hoax as the taco one.

In May 2000 someone thought to add further snippets of implied credibility to the e-mail quoted above, namely:


[Collected on the Internet, 2000]
This is a true story reported on CNN.

Andy Hume wrote: Hey, I used to work in an envelope factory. You wouldn't believe the things that float around in those gum applicator trays. I haven't licked an envelope for years.

This is a true story . . . Pass it on

First of all, the story was not reported on CNN. Pasting such authoritative-sounding taglines into the text of hoaxes circulating on the Internet in an effort to give them credibility is commonplace, and this is just another case of some nameless prankster doing just that.

Second, no one knows who "Andy Hume" is, so why give his supposed comments about working in an envelope factory any credence? It ain't all that tough to make up a comment and a name to go with it. If "Andy Hume" works for CNN, it's news to them. Searches of news databases for any reporter of that name turn up one who writes for The Ottawa Citizen, and wider searches turn up a British sports figure who also carries that name. There was also a Washington reporter, Sandy Hume, who killed himself in February 1998. But there's also no reason to assume any of those folks penned the comment now being circulated as a bolster to the e-mail.

Last updated: 4 March 2001