Filler: The ties that bind -- and infect

Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.

Clearly, plenty of people are sick of neckties. The question is whether many folks are getting sick from neckties.

Members of the New York State Senate's Independent Democratic Conference suspect the answer is a resounding "yes," and they are sponsoring legislation that would outlaw the wearing of the dangling variety by doctors. Bow ties, to the relief of the three grown men remaining in the world who willingly wear them, may escape unscathed -- but even this is not certain.

The IDC wants to create a 25-person committee to establish a hygienic dress code for medical professionals, citing a 2004 study at Queens Hospital showing 47 percent of the neckties worn by medical staff "harbored illness-causing bacteria."

The use of the word "harbored," rather than "carried," hints at malice, suggesting embittered, vicious ties whispering, "You bacteria hide in me, then when no one's looking, jump in Mrs. Murgleson's suppurating wound."

And who knows? What man among us, having mistied his cravat so that the skinny end is longer than the fat end four successive times while running late for work, cursing maniacally, hasn't suspected his paisley Van Heusen might be actively evil?

The IDC also wants this committee to fix a steely eye on jewelry, white coats, long sleeves and anything else that might transmit germs to patients, but it's the ties getting all the attention. A similar ban on all that dangles was enacted in Great Britain in 2007, but there is no clear consensus on whether it helped.

Ties are becoming less and less popular. In 2008, the trade group that represented American tie manufacturers, the Men's Dress Furnishing Association, disbanded. A recent study showed less than 6 percent of men wear them to work, which quite likely means more guys are sporting piercings on the job than those natty nooses.

Meanwhile, as the love of ties has waned, the incidence of infections spread in medical settings, like hospitals, has grown. When you think about it, it's not terribly surprising that doctors' ties carry germs, since most men's tie-laundering schedule could be described as "when I get marinara sauce on it."

It's not a bad idea to study whether ties and other articles worn by medical professionals make people sick. Antibiotic-resistant infections like MRSA and other forms of Staphylococcus should be fought by all reasonable means.

So it's not surprising that the four-member IDC, a group that has split off from the Senate's Democratic leadership, is calling for a committee to mull this over.

What does seem shocking, though, is the fact that some doctors fight such proposals, battling for the right to self-asphyxiate daily.

This flies in the face of another study, in the journal Postgraduate Medicine, saying ties sometimes endanger doctors themselves, because irate patients may grab them for choking purposes. That's a good argument for physicians to lose the ties, and for other professionals who anger people, like lawyers, bankers, politicians and journalists, to do the same.

It's amazing that it would take a law to convince medical professionals to drop ties. The merest excuse to toss them should be enough. Yet a resolution that would have done so, put before the American Medical Association in 2009, was blocked. Do doctor ties make patients sick? Possibly, but even if they don't, I wouldn't trust a doctor fighting for the right to wear one.

It's like a law stating men can no longer shop for drapes. It may not be needed, but who'd trust a guy that opposed it?