# Poll: Washing hands after using the bathroom **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 4, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739 "2005-10-04T15:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Penchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Penchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penchan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/61 "2005-10-06T05:15:10Z")
1. Female 2. 22 3. 100% 4. 100% 5. 100% After taking biology classes and food science classes, I would never think about not stopping to wash my hands. Do you know how sick you could get from eating with those same unwashed hands!? _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Megyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Megyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Megyn)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/62 "2005-10-06T06:04:28Z")
1. Your sex: Female 2. Your age (or decade, if you prefer): 32 3. Percentage of time you wash your hands after using a public restroom: I’d say about 50%. Most bathroom soaps make me break out in rashes. I don’t know why this is, because almost everyone claims to be using hypo-allergenic soaps. It makes me leary of lathering up in public, but I risk it sometimes. If we’re just talking water, 99%. 4. Percentage of time you wash your hands after using a restroom in someone else’s home: 50% there as well. If I’m in the home of someone I don’t know, and I’m not familiar with their soap brand, I avoid it. 99% if we’re talking just water, and they have hand towels available. I know where my clothes have been. 🙂 5. Percentage of time you wash your hands after using a restroom in your own home: 90%. Late night excursions are usually missed. That said, I’m a big fan of hand sanitizer, and tend to use it religiously, since my work involves keyboard usage. I think I can safely say my hands are clean every time I touch my keyboard. I also wash before preparing or eating food, even if it means my hands swell up because the only soap available reacts with my skin. Hopefully, you religious washers don’t glare at everyone who doesn’t wash in your presence. 🙂 That bathroom door handle almost negates washing, and if the soap is going to give me a reaction, I’d just as soon clean up elsewhere. Oh, and I make damn fine shish-ka-bobs, and I assure you, they are disease and bacteria free at the time of their creation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/63 "2005-10-07T01:04:40Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > I make _others_ wash their hands before touching my dick. Touche. But someday I’ll afford Prince Hakeem’s bathing girls and … ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/64 "2005-10-07T03:36:30Z")
[QUOTE=Asimovian] 1. Your sex Male 1. Your age (or decade, if you prefer) 36 1. Percentage of time you wash your hands after using a public restroom 100 1. Percentage of time you wash your hands after using a restroom in someone else’s home 98 1. percentage of time you wash your hands after using a restroom in your own home 80-90 (the only toime i don’t is when i get up to go during the night or in the early morning, and go back to bed after) Like with some other folks here, these figures are only for going Number 1. When going Number 2, i wash my hands every single time, no matter where or when i go. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/65 "2005-10-07T09:09:09Z")
[This story](http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.asp?docID=528097) on Health Finder says some of you may be fibbing: > [@](#): > > WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21 (HealthDay News) – Women do it better than men, but no one does it perfectly. > > The issue, of course, is hand washing. Specifically, a new survey of washrooms in public places found only 83 percent of American adults actually wash their hands after using the bathroom, even though 91 percent say they do. … ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/66 "2005-10-07T09:36:33Z")
1. Female 2. 25 The other answers aren’t so cut and dry. These are for peeing only. In my own home, I don’t wash unless I’ve gotten something on my hands. I may rinse. In public restrooms, I’ll usually rinse, but no soap unless, once again, I’ve gotten something on my hands. In others’ houses, I’ll always wash. Reason being, I like to try new soap. I have sore, splitting, dry, cracked hands - I try to keep soap off of them. I wash in others’ houses because if they have a soap that doesn’t irritate me, I want to know what it is. 🙂 And perhaps counterintuitively, if the bathroom is really nasty, I’m not going to wash my hands in it at all. I’d rather have my own germs on me than someone else’s! ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/67 "2005-10-07T14:05:31Z")
1. Male 2. 39 3. 100% 4. 100% 5. 100% If the bathroom is non-functional, then wet wipes or hand-sanitizer…typically at highway rest stops. We are training the kids our fear of germs too. We’re not afraid of germs and know that they are everywhere, but really, if this will decrease the possibility of us getting sick once in a while then it’s worth it. Of course, now that the kids are at school, I suspect that we’ll be up to our runny noses in runny noses…_hack_ ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739/68 "2005-10-07T14:40:28Z")
Male 42 100% 100% 100% [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-washing-hands-after-using-the-bathroom/324739.md?page=3)