Wash Your Hands!

I think we've all read about those little bowls of nibbles on pub counters being analysed and found contaminated by - er - urine.

It occurs to me though, that the male anatomy requires a more hands on approach to urinating than does the female. I wonder if there's any correlation?

Just a thought...

I think computer keyboards are one of the dirtiest places. I digress.

I am pleased to see newly designed toilets have a place to put your handbag, soap and drier all close together so you can carry out the whole operation without moving. In many toilets you have to carry you handbag with wet hands to a drier far from the sink. I am always in fear of having my handbag stolen if I leave it unattended so are often quicker than I would like to be when drying. At times it is a bit of a juggling act especially at the airport with hand luggage to manage.

There seems to be concern about the toilet door handle yet everywhere we go we are touching things other people have touched, especially the supermarket trolley.

All in favour of hand washing, but like children being allowed to play in the dirt we need to built up immunity as pollyparrots family seem to have done!

I agree, and would also point out that although we seem to be obsessed by 'tiolet germs' there are many other sources of infection, such as mucous, saliva, cat and dog faeces, coughs and sneezes etc. And contaminated food is far more dangerous than a bit of wee...

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/12097838/Dog-walkers-and-gardeners-should-avoid-washing-hands-to-encourage-friendly-bacteria.html

I've also been in the US toilets which have the paper seat cover which slides over as you go in. Also ones which automatically flush as soon as you stand up which is a bit off-putting if it doesn't give you chance to get dressed! I don't have a problem touching the toilet door as you have to wash your hands after that but hate it if there's nowhere to hang your handbag in the cubicle and agree it's difficult juggling a handbag and shopping bags between the washbasin and the drier! As someone who uses a lot of public toilets I've been in some amazing ones and some I would avoid like the plague and one in an airport where the attendant was singing opera as she cleaned

So interesting to find so many kindred spirits who open doors with elbows or tissue etc. I use my sleeves or a scarf if possible to open the door. I also have a slight problem with taps which must have germs on them from being turned on and then transferred back to your hands when tap is turned off. I am also much more cautious if there is yet another door after the 'ladies' door through which both men and women have to pass to exit as I think statistics show that men are less fussy about hand washing than women.

What about the women that "hover", leaving the toilet seat and floor wet! I always wear trousers but have to hold them up with my knees to stop them trailing on the floor. I use toilet paper to sit on, much easier. Escalators, I just lean on them, no touching with my hands and yes, I do wash my hands, although it does seem a waste of time some times!

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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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 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.

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

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!

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.

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!)