Dunno about him (and FTR, you needn’t refer to him in the third person when addressing his posts directly), but I was trained as a service employee back in the day that handling money was a hand washing trigger–employees wash up between handling money and handling food–and that one should open the bathroom door with the paper towel one used to dry one’s hands. In day-to-day life, of course, that’s not always practical, but jeez–what’s so difficult about regular handwashing? Are you allergic?
Of course, we’re going to encounter other people’s germs. I agree we shouldn’t freak out about it. But why on earth would we not take steps to minimize it?
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[, but jeez–what’s so difficult about regular handwashing? Are you allergic?
Of course, we’re going to encounter other people’s germs. I agree we shouldn’t freak out about it. But why on earth would we not take steps to minimize it?
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Oh, I always wash my hands after going to the bathroom; I was brought up that way. Never said I didn’t. You need not fear getting any of my coliform bacteria from any doorknob.
I just don’t imagine I’m really going to be able to avoid being pretty much covered by whatever’s out there anyhow, from the other doorknobs to the books in the library through whatever. And I do breathe, ingesting God-knows-what with every stroke. My bet still goes on having a strong immune system.
You still miss the point, don’t you? The washing your hands part isn’t just to “kill” bacteria on your hands when you wash them. Indeed, it’s not to do that hardly at all. It’s mostly to remove the oil on your hands that the bacteria love to cling to. Having washed off that oil, I’m much less likely to pick up bacteria from the faucet handle, the towel dispenser, and the doorknob/door handle.
We can’t eliminate picking up bacteria, or spreading it. But we darn certain can minimize the possibilities. Hand washing with plain soap is one of the most effective methods we can use, as studies routinely document.
If you had bothered to read the thread as it has developed, or for that matter, bothered to read Cecil’s column, you would have seen that urine isn’t in issue at all. It’s the potential for picking up fecal coliform bacteria. These show up out of the intestine through your feces, not through your urine. :dubious:
Thanks for the concern over methodological as well as hygenic purity on this matter:
Indeed, I might have included this from Alex Dubinsky:
“Let’s face it: people wash hands after urinating because urinating is a ‘nasty’ bodily function. There’s no reason to force on a retroactive explanation.”
And indeed, sterile or not, bacteria or not, people are far more likely to be aware of the feel of warm wetness not likely to have been from the sink than they are to carry a test kit for bacteria. So as with Alex, my focus was on the WHY of this common (well, in my neck of the woods) habit rather than what the good Doc says.
People do not wash their hands because they think they have urine on it. Alex Dubinsky was talking through his hat, as several posters pointed out. Women wash their hands after urinating, and they are far less likely to have had urine on the hand because they don’t even have to have the hand in the area much while completing the deed.
We wash our hands because we’ve been told since the time we were kids to wash after using the toilet. We’ve been told that because, for some time now, our medical profession has connected spread of disease to “germs” which come from that area, and need to be removed from the hands. Those germs have been known for a long time to be primarily fecal in nature. While there are undoubtedly some people who think they are washing off urine, most do not.
Ahh, so now it’s the oil! We probably missed this point because it wasn’t mentioned; silly us. The secret to health is oil-free hands. Alas, he needs to tend to the hand-cream industry, devoted to making sure that its customers have moist and slightly oily hands. Who knows where the Shadow lurks?
Oh for the love of MIKE. YES: I was simply commenting on the comment from Alex, and trying to be humorous in the act. YES: While the medical profession since Victorian times and maybe earlier told people to do this, this is NOT the primary reason people growing up learn the habit. Kids listen primarily to their parents and view the habits of peers, not to what the parents might have heard from other adults like those in the medical profession. You’re told to do X and that is about the end of that for most of experiences with such things. This is what is called the “force of habit.” Generally such things are not even consciously acknowledged.
Speaking of urine, rather than focusing on posts from here on out I think I’ll search out that rather large vat of piss and vinegar some posters seem to be sipping from in these forums and knock it over once and for all to prevent its sampling yet again.
Yes, I’m nailed: I should have checked for an oil comment before I submitted that post. I’ll never learn.
It’s been fun exchanging brickbats and custard pies with DSEasyEsq, but this dead horse has now been flogged sufficiently that it’s probably a good place to look for free quarks. He and I will almost certainly go through the rest of our lives (a) washing our hands after urinating, and (b) never having a scrap of evidence that it’s actually making any difference to our own health. But I couldn’t stop doing it without feeling yucky.
Urination has nothing to do with it, in terms of health benefit. Lots and lots of people have made the association, as evidenced by the stubborn persistence of the meme in this very thread. But that’s not why one should wash one’s hands.
The bottom line is this:
You should wash your hands four or five times a day, because your hands are filthy.
It is most convenient to wash one’s hands after urinating, because one is in the bathroom anyway.
For all the difference it makes, one could wash one’s hands on each bathroom visit prior to the act of urination. But since most people, without a clear understanding of what’s going on microbiologically (again, as evidenced by this very thread), would find that oogy, nobody really makes that argument. Nevertheless, it’s largely true.
The fact that so many people believe they are washing their hands after urination in order to get rid of the pee and the groin cooties is unfortunate, and pretty much irrelevant. And continuing the debate as if that’s the basis for the argument just makes you look foolish. Nobody’s arguing the other side. The column didn’t, and nobody in this thread is.
If you want to skip washing your hands after you pee, then please feel free.
Just make sure to make four or five extra visits to the bathroom, or some other handy washbasin, to scrub your hands of the nastiness they accumulate throughout the day.
Or you could wash your hands when you’re in the bathroom for other purposes, because it’s convenient.
Actually, the Perfect Master DID associate the washing of hands with the fact they were in the vicinity of groin bacteria.
So, as you see, Uncle Cecil asserts that touching the privates should always be followed by washing your hands. This isn’t because it’s a good idea in general, it’s because after touching your privates you want to wash off the transient baceria you may have picked up.
This is why restaurant workers are required to wash their hands before returning to work upon having used the restroom, either to pee or to poo. This is also why all major medical institutions and agencies recommend washing your hands after use of the toilet (ex.: The Mayo Clinic).
