Oh ye of little sanitation, prepare to be rebuked!
I have this thing. Call me crazy, but I think it’s quite
important to wash your hands.
Oh ye of little sanitation, prepare to be rebuked!
I have this thing. Call me crazy, but I think it’s quite important to wash your hands. Maybe it was my pre-Purel childhood or the time I put in as a cook’s assistant. Maybe it’s because of those things that a sinking feeling spreads over me when I discover there’s no soap in an airport restroom, or a broken sink at a rest stop, but I’m extra careful when I can’t get my hands clean.
Not so, apparently, with some of my friendly neighbors. Several times in the last two weeks, I’ve watched grown women walk right out of the restroom without bothering to even splash their hands with water for effect. Are they all returning to their tables and desks stocked – and here I’m surely fantasizing – with bottles of Purel? Doubtful.
The Centers for Disease Control estimate that one in three Americans don’t wash their hands after using the loo, skipping a valuable step that can prevent the spread of germs that cause everything from the common cold to more severe infections like hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea.
True, your hands may not look dirty after you’ve visited the restroom, but germs are invisible to the human eye and nose. You can’t smell them, feel them or taste them, but believe me, they’re there.
In the early 1800s, it was common for women to die soon after birth, not necessarily because of the birth itself, but because of the poor sanitation conditions in many hospitals, according to HyGenius, a manufacturer of hospital sanitation goods. As many as 25 percent of women who delivered their babies in hospitals during the 19th century died of childbed fever, which was not surprising considering many doctors and medical students didn’t wash their hands before entering obstetrics wards.
Even today, studies point to a low rate of hand washing in hospitals. In 1993, 11 hospital workers developed hepatitis A when each of them failed to wash their hands after administering treatment, according to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Currently, more than two million Americans develop nosocomial infections, or infections acquired inside the hospital and unrelated to their original condition, each year. The annual cost to consumers is more than $45 million, according to the CDC.
Outside the bounds of a hospital, it is an individual’s responsibility to care for him or herself, and the most effective means of stopping the spread of disease is – you guessed it – hand washing. So why not invest the 15 seconds?
Just in case you’re not sure what constitutes appropriate hand washing, consider the CDC’s instructions on the topic.
According to their Web site, you should:
• First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
• Next rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue for 10 to 15 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
• Rinse well and dry your hands.
