Me too!
Regular hand washing is good. Let me tell you all a story.
When I was a kid, I was a bit of a feral child. That is to say, I’d rather be outdoors than indoors, no matter the weather. My outdoor activities usually consisted of regular kid-type stuff; i.e. bulding forts out of giant boxes, digging in the ground for bugs, playing with the neighborhood dogs & cats. And, like a lot of kids, I only washed my hands when my parents made me. They always told me to, but I avoided it whenever possible. I mean, why be conscientious about it when my hands would just be back in the mud a minute later, right? So using the washroom, sneaking out without washing, going outside and playing, and then coming back in to have lunch was something I did a lot.
Well, one day when I was about 9, I noticed something weird on the toilet seat after I used the washroom. A tiny, translucent, wriggly thing. I was confused, but kind of forgot about it, until the next day when I used the washroom and noticed more of these things. Then I got kinda freaked out and told my mom. In turn, she got kinda freaked out and took me to the doctor.
Diagnosis: Pinworms. I was infested with 'em. Method of infection: A microscopic egg picked up via soil or fecal bacteria. This egg had managed to make its way from my dirty hands to my mouth, then down to my intestines, where it hatched and began its merry journey of reproducing by the hundreds and sucking all the nutrients out of me.
Since then, I’ve been a very scrupulous hand-washer. But not everybody out there is. You really don’t know who could have left an invisible pathogenic present on the door handle for you. The moral: Washing hands is important. And opening public washroom doors with towels.
But don’t toss the towels on the floor. I agree that that’s inconsiderate.
Amazon Flossy Gods
I knew when you said, going in and out and not washing your hands, this was a worms story. Worming kids was an annual event in small towns and rural areas in the 60’s and early 70’s. Now it’s not, and I link it to less expossure to animals and kids always being sanitized.
Go to Grandpa’s farm and visit the pigs. Pick up a bottle near the pigs. Don’t wash hands for a couple hours. Have a bad case of worms in a couple weeks.
The BEST part though is that when they’ve finished their COMPLETE bastardization of the data, they present it in a misleading way to upper management and when called on it say “Well that’s what zoid gave me!”
:eek: :dubious: :mad:
That was the first time I knew why washing up was important as a todler. Many examples of stuff that happened to people that didn’t wash continuing with people I knew as I grew up. The adults were very concious of Polio, TB, and other deadly desease being spread by touch or coughing. You got a severe punishment for coughing or sneezing without covering your nose or mouth. You needed to wash your hands as soon as possible afterwards. It wasn’t paranioa, it was fact. Eveyone had a relative that had gotten TB or Polio. I had two aunts that couldn’t walk. Looking at the newer viralent germs out there and the hygenic practices of a lot of people, I feel I need still be careful, and I am.
In the States at least, its completely normal. While waiting for a physical when I asked where the bathroom was. I was told ‘just around to the left.’ When I got there it was the ladies room, I went back. I asked again. They laughed as they recalled the bathrooms had been changed because ‘the handle to flush in the men’s room was next to the wall and the wall was getting scuffed up with boot marks, so we switched them.’ All this on an Army base. Even Infantrymen don’t want to touch the toilet.
As an adult this is true, but I believe a French study linked too clean environments to a lack of immune system development in children which is the cause of the rise in asthma cases for youths. Still looking for the cite. This does have anecdotal support. Anyone remember those nuns that stuck kids next to folk infected with the black plague? The kids were obviously better off for their systems having been stressed by a bit of ‘nasty germ viral contact.’
Does anyone have a cite that bathroom door-handles are either filthy or germ-ridden? Are there any studies that compare the germ content of a bathroom door handle to that of door handles to other rooms?
You make it sound like I’m in the habit of wiping my butt and sucking on my fingers or something. I wasd my hands quite often, but I don’t see the need to be so paranoid about it. Even if polio and TB were still widespread you’re still exceedingly unlikely to catch them from a doorknob. Germs are everywhere, if you think you’re avoiding them by not touching a doorknob for a second you’re just kidding yourself.
Hold on, I suppose that sounded aggressive…
I know that germs are all around me; I’m not too worried about polio (although TB is making quite the comeback), but it’s the rhinoviruses that I don’t want to deal with. I came to the conclusion that I hate colds and flues, and have made efforts to reduce how many I get, and so far it’s working. That leads me to believe that the rhinoviruses are indeed on surfaces like door handles, and by avoiding touching them and washing my hands frequently, I am reducing the amount of pathogens that my immune system has to deal with, leaving me in healthier condition.
Now, whose immune system is healthier - mine which hasn’t allowed me to get sick all winter (and there is no doubt in my mind that I’m still in contact with tons of pathogens), or someone who has had a couple of colds and flues?
how do you handle money? … do you touch coins and bills?
That’s like asking which car is safer in an accident - the one that’s crashed 5 times or the one that hasn’t crashed once. The way the information is now, it doesn’t mean anything.
Why do restroom door handles get all the hate? It’s kind of funny if you think about it. Think about the filth on all the other door handles out there which few people take pains to avoid.
I mean, at least most people who touch the restroom door handles have washed their paws a few seconds beforehand. In contrast, how many unclean hands have been wrapped around the poles on the subway? How many dirty hands have grabbed the refrigerator door handle in the office lunchroom? Think about the hundreds of unwashed fingers that have pushed on the keypad at the ATM. How many people have touched that elevator button?
Do we go through the whole “must put a layer of paper towel protection between me and this object” dance when we hold on to the escalator rail? What about when we open the front door into an office building? I have seen very few people take any special precautions when they touch the tongs at the buffet.
But in the restroom, the rules suddenly change. We suddenly are very much aware of all those hundreds of unhygienic people out there who touch the same things we might touch. It doesn’t matter that the same clunkhead who refuses to wash his hands will walk right out of the restroom and touch the subway pole, the stair railing, the refrigerator handle, and the keypad at the ATM. For some reason, we only freak out about the restroom door handle. Nevermind that his germs are smeared everywhere from here to Georgia. Its the restroom door handle that counts the most.
It’s ironic that the restroom door handle is seen as the scariest character in our lives. Not only do most people wash their hands immediately before opening touching it, but the restroom probably has less traffic than all the other public surfaces since the entry is gender-restricted. I’d be surprised if they really harbored as much filth as we think they do.
Germophobes annoy me. My degree is in microbiology, and all it did was make me aware that you can pick up NASTY stuff no matter what you try to do to prevent it. The horrible liver parasite that you get by walking barefoot on grass (the egg has tooth-like structures that will chew through your foot skin into your bloodstream) has always been the perfect example of that for me.
That didn’t happen to me, but it easily could have because I was the same kind of kid as you.
Eventually I realized why it took me so long to catch on: because “dirt” has two completely different meanings. They told me my hands were “dirty” so I should wash them so I wouldn’t catch anything. I thought “hey, what can I possibly catch from dirt? You know, the stuff in the sandbox, in the garden, on my bike …” - or, for that matter, other things which make kids “dirty” like paint, frosting, grass stains …
Germs/viruses/bacteria/etc are what you need to worry about, not dirt. Dirt (garden variety) is actually usually pretty clean (excepting, of course, animal feces - but that’s pretty rare, isn’t it?), and things that are germy (eg subway poles) don’t usually have a speck of “dirt” on them.
I was a very literal child.
These days I’m much more likely to wash my hands thoroughly after taking public transit or handling money, than after working in the garden.
I think this is what you guys are talking about - the hygiene hypothesis. It’s an interesting read. So, medical science, which is it - contact any and everything with an eye to challenging your immune system, or be careful about contact and limit your exposure to pathogens?
Dang it, I forgot what I went looking for originally - you can get tetanus from dirt, as well as a large number of other bacteria and parasites. There is a reason that we clean dirt out of wounds.
I work in a call center. Many people, many germs, many people with less than perfect hygiene. I try like hell never to touch someone else’s mouse, I wash my hands often and I’m sorry, but when I’m in the toilet and it’s very clear that the person next to me has just pinched a mighty loaf and left the room WITHOUT WASHING THEIR HANDS I am absolutely NOT going to touch that door handle, because I know for a fact that someone who just wiped shit off her butt (and it’s not like toilet paper is made of titanium or anything, it can break reaaal easy) touched it right before me. Then I don’t know which mouse that person will be touching, or if they’re touching the microwave or fridge handle before me, and yeah, I use hand sanitizer a LOT. I’m not a total germophobe by any means, but you oughta see some of these people, it would make you a believer and you’d be using a paper towel on the door handle too.
FWIW, on other door handles I use only the pinky of my left hand to open them, and really prefer ones I can push open to those I have to pull on. I put my hand way above my head, where it’s unlikely anyone else is putting their hand to push the door.
Some people are just nasty, there have been confirmed cases of various strains of hepatitis in this company, and I don’t feel like catching something gross just so someone else can feel reassured about my mental health–I don’t touch well trafficked items barehanded and if I must I wash afterward, it’s only sensible.