Navel lint

A Bauchnabelfussel is an accumulation of abraded loose fibers of clothes, body hair, skin cells and dust in the introverted navel forms if regular cleaning does not occur. A special form is the navel stone or Omphalolith .

composition

In 2001, Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney , Australia , carried out a systematic study to determine the composition of the navel lint. His main findings were:

Belly button lint consists mainly of loose fibers of clothing , mixed with dead and tattered skin cells and fallen body hair.
Contrary to expectations, lint is also moving upwards out of underwear and less downwards out of shirts and tops. The movement results from the rubbing pull of the body hair on the underwear, which pulls loose fibers into the navel.
Women have less navel lint because they have thinner and shorter body hair. Conversely, older men have more because they have thicker and more hair on their bodies.
The characteristic blue-gray color of the navel lint is the average of the colors of the fibers in clothing. Lint is the same color in tumble dryers .

In 2002 Kruszelnicki was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for his interdisciplinary research .

record

Graham Barker of Perth , Western Australia is the record holder for collecting navel lint according to the Guinness Book of Records . He has collected his navel lint almost every day since January 17, 1984. He finds about 3.03 mg daily . In contrast to Kruszelnicki's investigations, his lint is supposedly a reddish color, although he hardly wears red clothing.

Artistic processing

In the US sitcom Alf , the episode "Between Two Stools" (season 3, episode 20) deals with the subject of navel lint. Alf explains to the Tanner family that in addition to swapping the left socks and spitting in each other's soup, swapping the navel lint is one of the three elementary stages of advertising on his planet Melmac.

Umbilical stone

A so-called umbilical stone (omphalolite) develops over a period of several years in people with a particularly deeply retracted navel: Dead horny cells remain in the umbilical cavity and are compressed over time, so that a brown or black, solid structure is created that is difficult to move can be removed.

It is assumed that there is a connection between poor personal hygiene and the formation of umbilical stones: Omphalolites predominantly occur in people who rarely or not thoroughly wash or are unable to do so. Another hypothesis is that sebum and keratins accumulate over a long period of time; Continuous evaporation of residual moisture after sweating or bathing leads to the gradual formation of the hard, stone-like calculus . It is mostly harmless, but in rare cases it can become inflamed or ulcerated . In one case, peritonitis was caused by an umbilical stone penetrating the abdominal cavity.

literature

Georg Steinhauser : The nature of navel fluff . In: Medical hypotheses . tape 72 , no. 6 , June 1, 2009, p. 623-625 , doi : 10.1016 / j.mehy.2009.01.015 .