I have seen this in the last few office buildings I have worked in (not so much in true public bathrooms, like a shopping mall) over the last several years.
Here’s what I don’t get. :dubious: People that do this are concerned about touching something that has been touched by someone else whose hygiene is less than ideal. However, once you leave the bathroom, you spend the rest of your day touching other door handles, stair railings, coffee pots, photocopier buttons, elevator buttons, and any number of things that have been touched by those same unclean people! :eek: What’s so special about the bathroom door handle such that it’s the only thing you worry about?
About 25 years ago I had a friend with a 10-year-old son. The son once told me that his grandfather instructed him to, upon leaving a public restroom, take out his handkerchief (the grandfather still carried one) and use it to open the door. I had never heard of this and just about laughed out loud. (Also the thought that he wrapped up this now-germ-infested hanky and tucked it back in his pocket was amusing.)
I wonder if all of those people who are so paranoid about touching a door handle that might have been touched by someone who didn’t wash their hands first have ever considered the fact that they handled their own clothing before they washed their hands. And then proceeded to wear those clothes for the rest of the day!!!
This has been standard practice in “Clean” industries for a couple of decades, at least. And its an easy and effective means of promoting public health.
“Universal design” and a bit of education would make it obsolete; pushing a levered door handle down with your elbow (rather than grasping a door handle) means you don’t have to worry about the previous user’s hygiene.
Consider:
What do 90% of public restrooms have? Some heavily scented “odor-eliminating” stuff.
What do 90% of people do within two minutes of experience “odor-eliminating” stuff? Sneeze.
What do 90% of decent people* do when they sneeze? Cover their highly vulnerable mucus membranes with their hands.
Don’t worry, your immune system will always have plenty of opportunities for a good work-out. Wash your hands.
Well put! Seriously, you can do whatever you want to prevent getting any “germs” on yourself, but it’s totally useless unless every single person is doing the same things that you are. Go ahead, if it makes you feel better, but I agree with the above post.
Also, I always sneeze into my elbow, as well. Started doing that when I was a nanny about ten years ago and the habit just stuck with me. Again, no idea if it even makes a difference, but around a child, it just made more sense to sneeze into my elbow than my hands just in case I had to touch him before I had the chance to wash my hands. I also always hope that others are doing the same. Who wants to shake a snotty hand?
I appreciate what people are saying about picking up germs from other locations (elevator buttons, hand rails), but what about at a restaurant?
I go in, wash my hands, use the paper towel to open the door, and sit down and eat my burger. My hands aren’t being reinfected anywhere along the way (with the exception of airborne molecules). I doubt the germs would kill me, but I refuse to touch the handle of the bathroom door right after the guy who just wiped his ass and then sit down and eat fries and burgers. Sure, it’s mostly psychological, but surely it’s possible to get some fecal contamination that way? Am I wrong?
For me it started when I realized A) that people are filthy slobs who don’t wash their hands, and B) bathroom designers are too stupid to include doors which can be opened without having to grasp a disease-infested handle or doorknob.
I also have noticed something like that. Most other nationalities–especially Asian and Middle -Eastern ones–seems to be much cleaner than Americans. They seem much more concerned about bathroom hygiene and cleanliness in general. For example, to many folks the American custom of using paper rather than water to remove disease-causing feces from one’s body is REALLY DISGUSTING. I tend to agree.
Funny how Americans think they’re so much cleaner than those “dirty, third-world beggars”. We are, as usual, a fucking joke.
I’ve only occasionally seen anyone use the paper-towel-on-door-handle trick. In other than a no-kidding sterile setting it looks like a phobic overreaction to me.
You can’t be serious. Are you really telling me wiping your butt with paper is cleaner than using water and soap? Really? Any doctors agree with that? I don’t think so.
Yes, Americans tend to believe they are the cleanest of the clean and like to make fun of the French saying they don’t wash but the French invented and use the bidet to keep their private parts clean (as do I) while Americans will wipe their butts with paper. To me that is like saying you don’t need to wash your hands with water because you wiped them on the bark of a tree.
Put me also in the category that does not understand the paper towel to the door handle too well although I suppose I could understand it but the thing is that if I am thinking that people are nasty (and many are) then I would stop shaking people’s hands as a first measure.
