Wash Your Hands!

My late Mum often commented about a friend who on leaving the cubicle would just rinse two fingers under the tap - Mum could never work out what that was all about.... Personally, my hands 'feel' unwashed until I apply soap and water - I really don't understand how people can leave a toilet without washing. Re. the doors, yes I'm an 'elbower' when possible or failing that I use the top of the handle rather than the middle bit which everyone grabs. And while we're on the subject of things lavatorial, do you actually sit on the loo seat? I don't, but hasten to add that I never leave splashes!

I'm a hand washer . I was in a public toilet and the female who was driving the ice cream van parked outside came straight out of a cubicle back into the van.

Good point MiniMouse - I don't know the answer other than too hot or too cold and you don't keep your hands underneath the water so long. Just for the record I'm not OCD about hygiene - I agree that we all need to build up an immunity to germs and grew up in a terraced house with a toilet in the backyard with no sink in it for hand washing so had to do that in the kitchen. I realise that we are surrounded by bugs every day but would prefer to avoid those that I can. I am a bit OCD about food poisoning - as I have no sense of smell or taste I can no longer tell if food is 'off' so try to buy everything with long sell by dates or bin stuff that is past it - but that's another story

I have a question, which is probably going to earn me Numpty of the Century award, but here goes .....

We're told/advised to use soap and hot water. What difference does it make whether the water is hot or cold (apart from being more pleasant!)? Aren't most germs resistant unless the water is boiling?

Presumably overuse of anti-bacterial wipes & gel will have the same impact as over use of anti-biotics. Bacteria will become immune and therefor more of a health worry. Stick to soap and water unless you have a virulent stomach bug etc. and stop stressing out about handrails etc!

I do have a reduced immune system so I am keen that antibiotics do remain a useful tool for fighting infection. Please use sparingly!

I used to work in a hospital and still use the hand washing technique learned there same as Tinglydancer's husband . I do it to 2 mental sings of Happy Birthday . I avoid public toilets everywhere unless desperate , then it's exiting with my sleeve cuff !

It's worth noting that Norovirus (winter vomiting bug) is not killed by wipes or gels. It is however, seen off effectively by soap and water. So in hospital for instance, soap and water washing plus antibacterial gel is necessary to protect people with depressed immune systems etc.

I'm a washer and door elbower, but do have some doubts as the cleanest person I ever knew who had three young children and a house you could eat off the floor had more episodes of d & v running through the family than any of the rest of us with young kids at the time. I suspect there is something useful about getting to know and tolerate frequently-met bacteria. (However I'm still a hand washer!)

I don't think I am OCD, but I wash my hands at every opportunity.
It's lovely to feel clean, and a bit scented from the soap/gel, whatever.
It's impossible to understand people who don't wash their hands after going to the loo... I hate that. It takes so little effort.

Christingle, I've been to good and shocking public loos in the US, Canada and the UK (sorry, England - presumably the rest of the UK have pristine facilities?). But the worst I've known were in parts of China, where you often have to crouch while standing on the pools of urine and (worse) phlegm deposited at the side of the hole by previous users. Not pleasant in flip flops!

The single worst toilet I've seen was, oddly, on Green Island, Cairns, in Oz. Piles of used toilet paper, sanitary towels, and poo rolled up in toilet paper on the cubicle floors, and it stank to high heaven. It was a busy day, tourists from all over the world, so who knows where the culprits were from, but it obviously hadn't seen a cleaner for hours The emoticon's for feeling queasy, on this occasion!

Dirty buggers and germ spreaders. Any normal person always washes their hands after using the loo.

I don't know, what some of you would have done, if you'd been brought up in a tenement before and during the war. With a communal toilet for three or four families, on each floor. It was just a wc, with no tissues, or hand washing facilities. Toilet paper, was newspaper. We all thrived, and were much healthier, than a lot of children nowadays. I often think, today's children, should be given a dirt injection, or some such thing, to help their immune systems.

Reminds me of the story, two men leaving a public toilet. One washed his hands, the other didn't. The on said to the other, I'm a medical student, and we're taught to wash our hands, after using the toilet. The other replied, I'm an apprentice plumber, and we're taught, not to piss on our hands.

I refused to use a disgusting hole in the floor toilet in Greece when I needed a pee and I walked into the pine woods and found a tree.
Doesn't work when you are in a town though.

Oh for heavens sake. Wash your hands properly after using the toilet and before preparing food. Be careful about food hygiene with regard to storage and preparation. Be extra careful if you think you have a stomach bug.

You do not need to use paper towels on the escalators or going through doors.

As for flu and colds you probably pick that up from getting too near to other people. The only solution is to avoid all other humans.

I read once that a touch screen (iPad etc) has more germs on it than a toilet seat - just saying......

But clearly not if a cat is sleeping in your sink!

The main thing is to wash hands well before preparing food or eating.

Christingle - I have only twice in my life decided not to use a public lavatory. On a small Spanish railway station it looked like an uninviting dark cave and the filthiest I've seen was at the main bus station in Boston USA.

I also use a napkin to hold the self serving spoons in a carvery! All those different hands using the same spoons !! Yuk

Everything we touch is full of bacteria and germs from others. Trollys, money, dirty seats in taxis and buses, clothes and items we touch in shops. It's what builds an immune system and some bacteria is good! As for hand washing, don't assume because you see someone come out of a loo then leave that they haven't cleaned their hands! I do it inside the loo, with wipes and gel cleaner. I then hold the wipe to open dirty doors. I've seen looks from from other people so don't just assume! By the way Englaish toilets are a disgrace, filthy mostly. In USA and Canada they are heaps better, most doors automatic and all flushes are activated when you stand.

How barmy is not touching an escalator handrail? Hope you never overbalance and fall on the poor person in front or behind...

The two things that have improved our health are clean water and immunisation.

I thought i was the only one who didn't touch the escalator Maggieanne! I step on and just stand - my husband is convinced I'll fall down the thing one of these days - if I find I'm overbalancing I lean on it with my sleeve too {grin]

The people for whom we should have most concern are those who have compromised immune systems due to medical conditions or medication like steroids which reduces immunity. Since there are very many of these vulnerable people it is only right that their needs should come first and the public needs to be cleaner in their habits.

Everyone who is well can afford a laissez faire attitude others can not.

I'm surprised the human race is still going! All these germs lurking just waiting to get you everywhere in the big bad world! How the hell did our forefathers survive long enough to reproduce!

I do realise that we have eradicated many diseases due to improved hygiene and medical knowledge but really we are becoming over anxious. about germs!