Not according to the Cecil article quoted in post number 7:
Sailboat
About time to remind people of Typhoid Mary. Not washing after urination is arguable, nit washing after defication is disgusting.
Unless you are, ironically, a germophobe who is rarely exposed to them. I make it a point to eat something off the floor every day, just to keep my resistance up.
You certainly champion some noble causes, Diogenes. And on this one you’ve sold me. When I think of all those poor souls out there like us, suffering under society’s yoke, browbeaten into cruel acts of minimal hygiene, it brings a tear to my eye—one that I plan to wipe away later, when I’m in my own, non-public bathroom.
I propose that we, the proudly fouled, organize a “Hands Across America” campaign to publicize our plight. “Hands are for Holding - Not Washing!™” Attendance, I predict, will be staggering.
I admit I was repulsed the first time I was brought a glass of water by a waitress fresh from a sojourn to the bathroom, finding it dappled with pungent brown fingerprints along the rim. But now I realize the problem was not that poor hurried waitress, or even the glass itself, redolent with butt-fudge— the problem was me and my lack of tolerance.
I feel shame now, but I am making a sincere effort to change. In fact, I’m questioning why we need to bathe at all. After all, it’s your fucking nose, you deal with it!
I find it massively more likely that the sewer rats with poor immunity or hyperactive immune systems simply die off without breeding, while the lab rats are protected from natural selection. If we didn’t treat juvenile diabetes, its incidence would probably plummet, too.
I tend to think we should wash after peeing for social reasons, not so much hygeine (though at least for women, there’s the distinct possibility that a previous stall occupant smeared fecal bacteria or menstrual blood on the door latch that you have to touch to get in and out, which is a reasonable argument for washing). When most of the population finds something icky, it’s polite to make small accomodations. Most of us wouldn’t want to (extreme example) drink someone’s pee, even if it is harmless. I think it’s reasonable to request that our fellow humans wash after touching their junk, even if it’s an emotional thing rather than a scientific necessity.
And I agree, washing in the bathroom is just a convenient way to periodically cleanse off all the germs that come from non-bathroom sources. I don’t know about bacteria, but viruses can live on hard surfaces like door handles, keyboards, and receivers for a day or more. And viruses cause colds, influenza, and various combinations of vomiting and diarrhea. Not to mention crap like Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease or RSV, which children are especially susceptible to. So I don’t think it’s DSMIV material to prize handwashing.
Personally, if I’m not at my home or a close friend’s, I assume the palms of my hands are filthy with microorganisms. If I have to touch my face, I try to do it with the back of my wrist. And I always wash my hands when I get home and before eating.
Glad I could help. Mind if I wash my balls in your Diet Coke?
Seriously, when did I say people shouldn’t wash their hands if they’re handling food? I spent a lot of years working in kitchens. Handwashing while preparing food is ingrained for me, and I don’t just mean before I begin but repeatedly as I go.
For the record, I usually at least do wash my hands in public restrooms to avoid getting the stink eye from other people, but if I’m at home, and the wife isn’t looking…
My last post was addressed to Vinyl Turnip.
My WAG is that the bacteria is pretty much wiped off by the next ass to sit on it. Or if there are paper seat covers they’re picked up by them.
I wash my hands upon leaving the bathroom because of all the people who cough or sneeze on their hands and don’t use the sink in the bathroom themselves. I don’t know what other surfaces they’ll be touching besides their mouses, but I’m damn sure they’re touching the door knob… so I wash my hands and am glad that there’s a trash can by the door to throw paper towels in. I’m not one of the people who is sick all the time, so I think it helps.
Germaphobes trip me out. Because no matter how many times you wash your hands, or hover over the seat or don’t touch doorknobs what the fuck ever, during any given day out in the world, despite your paranoid (to me) precautions, you will, og ferbid touch something that is INFECTEDl!
No matter what steps you take…(cue ominous music)
Yeah, they’re pretty funny. Is there a thread about them somewhere? Because what we’re really talking about in this thread is people who don’t appreciate others wiping ass all over them, not germophobes.
Sailboat
Those of you who advocate not washing - I’m with you! I love to dig out some fomunda cheese while I do my business and usually get piss all over my hands too. You know what they say: “No matter how you shake and dance, the last drop goes in your pants!” I say, not necessarily - know what I mean?
Why should it bother me, because I figure it’s just gonna come off on the flush handle, counters, door knobs and anywhere else I touch. If others are so sensitive that my bacteria and shit is gonna make them sick, then all I can say is that the herd needed thinning out anyway!
Damn, where do you work?
Sorry, that just slipped out. Actually, I used to take a shower every time I took a dump. I just couldn’t feel clean unless I did. A roommate finally pointed out to me that I was being a bit nutty by coming home from work in the middle of the day just so i could take a dump and a shower in my own home when I could have stayed at work and took a dump saving myself the gas, the time and the possibility of being caught by my boss sneaking out just to drop the kids at the pool.
I can handle germophobes who make a little nest of paper on the toilet. I can even handle said 'phobes who uses paper to open the washroom door when they leave. BUT FOR FUCK’S SAKE - take the paper with you or bin it!
There is a guy at work who leaves the paper in the door handle. I go to open the door, knowing that although there are bacteria on the handle, my doper knowledge tells me it’s nothing I can’t… well… handle… ordinarily that is, on the stainless steel… but this character has just left a warm, damp paper towel which his hands have been all over - breeding ground anyone? - for me to touch. Be a germophobe by all means, but don’t be a hypocritical one. YOU might want to escape the germs, but you don’t give a shit about the folks who have to remove your paper arse-nest from the seat, or remove the towel that so delicately protected your hands from the door handle.
My workplace has about 500 people, and I don’t know who you are - YET. But I’m closing in on you, motherfucker!
Don’t forget the pussies who don’t flush because they’re afraid to touch the handle.
That, and the fact that, germs aside, it’s also just plain ol’ littering. Clean up your own mess, you arrogant fuckmerchant.
Anyone who equates neglecting to wash your hands with “wiping ass all over them” is a hysterical germophobe who probably needs medication…
Aw, fuck that. Flushing is for sissies anyway. If I don’t care about leaving my leavings all over everything I touch, what do I care about leaving it sit? So you have to see it and smell it as well as touch it? Big deal.
Hell, if it wasn’t illegal, I’d just piss and shit in the corner. Me and Najeh Davenport prefer to drop some friends off at the park, not the pool.
I say take your compromised immune system and cry to your daddy, bubble boy!
Doorknobs don’t bother me. Nor do toilet handles, toilet seats, etc., assuming there is not visible piss on them.
I really think you should wash your hands after taking a piss, but am not grossed out by the thought of shaking someone’s hands after they have gone wee and not washed.
However. If you take a shit and don’t wash your hands afterward, you’re disgusting. End of story. I will front no discussion on this matter. I don’t care how clean you think you’re being, you most probably have tiny shit particles on your hands afterward. The author of Home Comforts, which is about the art and science of housekeeping, pointed out that while she had a child in diapers, she and her husband would very occasionally get an unexplainable stomach bug that lasted a day or so. Once the child was toilet trained, this stopped happening. I’ve noticed the same thing. Wash your goddamn hands after you take a shit.
(And to forestall the inevitable: Yes, I usually wash my hands after changing a diaper. No, I don’t do it 100% of the time, because the sad truth is that sometimes you have to change a diaper when there’s no sink, soap, or hot running water around, so you have to make do with baby wipes.)
I’m still astounded at the number of people who make the bizarre jump from “that person washes their hands after they visit the bathroom” to “germophobe” or “OCD”. It seems to me that 95% of the people posting in this thread are MILITANTLY against post-urination hand-washing.
Never in my life have I been called a germophobe or OCD. I don’t spend hours at the sink scrubbing and obsessing. I don’t disinfect every surface at the drop of a hat. What DO I do?
I wash my hands in the following situations:
-After I go to the bathroom.
-After coming to work using the subway (trust me, you would too if you were on my route).
-Before I eat.
-After my hands have come into contact with something gross, like raw meat or cat litter. (These things don’t happen at the same time…generally.)
Generally, I just keep my hands clean. I was taught to do this by my Mom and Dad, who are clean, nice people and not germophobes. I have noticed that when I keep my hands clean, I get colds and flus less. In general, I think it’s better for you, and for others, when you wash your hands. This is true when leaving the bathroom, after you’ve touched your genitalia or wiped yourself, and it’s also true after you’ve blown your nose or cleaned the cat’s litter box. Those are actions which likely add more icky things to your hands than, say, knitting.
And furthermore, what’s the harm? It seems to me like if we’re going to weigh our options, hand-washing after urination will cause LESS problems for you and others than NOT hand-washing. As others have said, at the very least it’s a convenient time to wash your hands. As Cecil himself has said, it’s a great time to wash the coliform bacteria you just picked up in the stall or at the urinal off your hands.
So why argue? Why namecall? Just wash…your…hands.
Beautiful, I love this reference. In my fantasy league, his nickname is “The Pooper”.