I NEVER see my doctor wash her hands before examining me. I can only hope that she sanitizes before she enters the room; however, then she touches the exam room door! If I were I doctor, I would sure as shit wash up in front of the patient, to inspire more confidence if nothing else. Hell, there’s a sink right there! What’s up, Doc?!
Exactly, there is nothing like plenty of soap and water.
And one more thing: soap and water is the only thing to use for people with hemorrhoids. Keep that area extremely clean, not just wiped with paper clean, and the problem subsides a lot. Having irritated tissue coated with shit is not the best idea. Use plenty of soap and water, not only on the outside but on the inside.
If I ever get to build or seriously remodel a home it will have one. I cannot not wash after so I have to resort to either undressing and showering or to uncomfortably washing while I sit over the edge of the tub. I could probably invent something like a plastic tub over one of those big plastic buckets. I’ll have to try.
I do it because I’m a people watcher, and I’ve watched a large majority of guys walk out of the bathroom without washing their hands in my lifetime, and I don’t want your dick sweat or butt grease on my clean hands.
What kind of sense does that make? Do you think germs just ignore physical barriers or something, and just instantly hop through them? Try an experiment: put some ink on a door handle. Ball up a paper towel and use it to open that door. Did you get ink on your hand? Then how are you going to get germs on your hand?
I started in 2007 when I read that over 30% of men in the US do not wash with soap and water before leaving a public bathroom.
This thread may have solved a mystery I’ve had for a bit. The bathroom I frequent at the university I attend always has paper towels scattered near the door. I always figured, given the filth in the stalls, that it just represented the slobs that use the place (myself excluded, of course). Now I see that it was from users trying to make a statement that there should be a receptacle available to toss paper used for the door handle! That must be it!
A problem I have, though: the paper curled near the door looks filthy. Ever been in a filthy place and not bothered using all your manners… say spitting in a dirt floor garage that’s strewn with junk? I think that explains why there’s also paper tossed near the garbage can, but not in it.
However, I don’t know that it excuses the anaconda perched above the waterline in the bowl with toilet paper deposited around it like mice for the mealtime feed.
In short, I think all you hoity-toity paper-towel-on-the-door-handle types beget an even filthier bathroom (at least the ones that just toss 'em on the floor). For shame!
I’ve never actually seen anyone, in my entire 50+ years on this earth, use a paper towel to open the bathroom door. And since there aren’t wastepaper baskets outside the door of every single public and private restroom in America, I think it is not a very widespread practice. in fact, I’ve never even seen a wastepaper basket outside the doors of bathrooms in hospitals, and I’ve been in more than a few.
I don’t think I’ve ever did it with someone right behind me, I keep my neat-freakiness to myself.
Another SDMB quote (it may not have originated here, but that’s where I heard it) that stays with me was something like: “You wouldn’t use a tissue to clean shit off of your arm, so why would you use it to clean your ass?”
For a hairy ass a more appropriate rendition would be: “Would you use only a tissue to clean shit off your hair?”.
Doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea right now, does it?
Funnily enough, when I saw the Aviator, I said “Use your shirt tail, moron!”. That’s what I do in a questionable bathroom.
Welcome, ScottAllen. Fighting ignorance is taking longer than we thought, & so is teaching people how to wash their hands as evidenced by the fact that this thread was started 12 years ago. Many of the original posters are no longer here; not sure if they were done in by a germy bathroom door handle, though.
I’m glad to see that many public restrooms now have a trash can stationed by the door, compared to when this thread was started back in '08. Discarding paper towels has been made a lot easier compared to having to perfect a three-point shot from the door to a trash can 25 feet away.
It’s been standard in hospitals for a long time now to have a wastebasket by the door and for visitors/staff to be urged to use it.
Not the most ecologically sound practice, but easier than using your elbow to whack the air dryer button.
I used to only do this in bathrooms that didn’t look particularly clean (like in a gas station, for example).
As of last week, I now do it in all public restrooms.
And as of a few days ago, I also now do it for all other public door handles, like the entrance to my building. If I don’t have a paper towel handy, I immediately wash my hands after entering the building.