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Can old reeds make you sick?

Author: LaurieBell
Date: 2019-03-08 16:43

Can playing on old reeds make you sick?

Just for the heck of it, I opened a box of (Vandoren) reeds from my stash that’s around 40 years old. None showed any visible signs of decay or mold. The first reed I selected played beautifully. The next day I selected another read that tasted like it was new. It played beautifully too; however, 40 minutes into my practice session, my throat suddenly closed up and I had that awful feeling just before you get a whopper of a cold.

My throat was painful for the next two days but I had no other symptoms until day 3, when I developed congestion, a headache and a high fever. After over-the-counter meds, my fever was gone and I felt somewhat better on day 4. By day 5, it seemed I was on the downside of a cold.

What was nagging in the back of my mind was the question, “Did my old reed make me sick?

I Google that question and found a YouTube where a fellow did an experiment to test the cleanliness of reeds. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyEnX2Afga0)

He used a Luminometers to measure ATP levels which assess the cleanliness of surfaces. High number means there is a lot of contamination on the surface, low numbers mean this is little contamination.

As a baseline, he said raw meat cannot be sold if it measures more than 2,000 RLU.
- He tested a new reed and it read 4 RLU (basically clean)
- He tested a reed he used every day and it read 104 RLU.
- He tested a reed with visible mold and it read 4,024 RLU.
- Then he cleaned the reeds by soaking them in Hydrogen Peroxide and the readings dropped to 64 RLU.
- He also tested his mouthpiece and it was 8,052 RLU, which dropped to 116 RLU after swabbing with a Q-tip soaked in Hydrogen Peroxide.

His conclusion was that likely the high RLU wouldn’t make you sick, since he had been playing on his (unclean) mouthpiece without any problem.
==

I’ve never had any problems with my reeds making me sick, even when I’ve had to play on them when I had cold sores (although I soaked them in mouthwash between playing).

My sudden sore throat was most likely coincidental, but it made me wonder enough to ask if anyone else has ever experienced a similar problem.

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