I was recently leaving Chicago on the Northwest Tollway (I-90) and stopped to refuel at a gas station just outside the greater Chicago area (near the tollway's intersection with US-20, west of Elgin) and was a bit surprised by what I saw near the fuel pump: an anti-bacterial lotion dispenser.

Of course, if the owner of the fuel station was germ-obsessed and wanted to prevent the spread of bacteria, I could (perhaps) see the usage. Although simply wiping anti-bacterial lotion on your hands after pumping gas may make them smell better and may kill what germs resided on your hand or picked up from the pump handles, it certainly does not remove (or "kill"?) the benzene and other chemicals that may get on your hands from pumping the gasoline (which, ironically, probably have their own anti-bacterial qualities anyway).

I really cannot attribute the installation of the anti-bacterial lotion dispenser to anything but ignorance about the extent to which such lotion can "clean" the hands. But, then again, maybe it is there to placate the germophobes among us.