On 7 Feb, 12:07, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,"JennyC" writes:
| You have set me thinking.... I've never had a tetanus jab in my whole life
| !!
| I worked on farms, with horses, pigs, various crops etc and never thought
| about it.
| Do you think it's essential for home gardeners /

Absolutely. A cut and an infection would really make you sick. I
realised how serious this was when about 13 years ago, I was moving
some planks and to re-equilibrate myself I lean on a plank. It had a
rusty nail on it and it went straight into my hand. I cleaned it as
best I could - but 3 days later I was so sick I had to go to emergency
with a hand the size of an orange. I got a told off, some penicilin, a
tetanus jab and then promised myself to keep onto it because I was
told it could have been really serious.

The risk of getting tetanus is very low, but the risk of dying if you
get it is very high. The risk of the innoculation is very low, unlike
for some others.
Any soil that has had domestic animals on it in the past century, or
has had manure from such animals put on it during that period, may
contain viable tetanus spores. To a first approximation, that means
everywhere in the UK, but some soils will contain more spores than
others.

I have been asked many time prior to working with groups in gardens,
or the last job I had at a garden centre if I had had a jab. It is now
asked by many organisation. It's has important as steel toe boots
are )