# Why doesn't everyone (including women) wash their hands after using the rest room? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933 "2003-07-16T18:03:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/41 "2003-07-18T04:45:38Z")
_God_ but you people are friggin’ wimps. Like living in fear, do you? As George Carlin said: “I have: _an immune system_. It needs: _practice_.” Please don’t kick the toilet handles; it’s inconsiderate. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/42 "2003-07-18T15:41:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voltaire \* > \*\*Nope, no singing. It involves a lot of soap, water, friction applied by rubbing, and TIME. \*\* I was taught to sing “Yankee Doodle” twice while washing to make sure I spent enough time. Julie ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/43 "2003-07-18T15:58:45Z")
Yes, I touch the toilet handle with my delicate little fingers…and then I **WASH MY HANDS**. Criminy, I touch all sorts of germ-infested surfaces all day long, I’m not particularly afraid of any one more than the others. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/44 "2003-07-18T16:09:33Z")
I use restrooms that have automatic flush & automatic water from the faucet. They are pretty common in my area. I hope it comes to your area soon 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![roadrunner70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/45 "2003-07-18T16:21:08Z")
Sometimes, when I’m wiping, and the paper rips…if I get a whole lot on my thumb, I’ll wash. Just kidding… ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/46 "2003-07-18T16:39:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > \*\*Well, this is why I don’t wash my hands in public bathrooms (but now that I work in a fancy-shmancy office building I fake it just like everyone else. And I mean FAKE, and I mean EVERYONE. Trust me, I pay attention.) > > In my book, public bathrooms (even brand-spanking-new ultra clean ones that reek of clorox) are a thousand times dirtier than my penis could ever be, and as long as I’m still breathing the only part of me that’s ever going to touch any part of a public bathroom is the bottom of my shoes. > > **My routine for peeing in public:** unzip my fly, grab one flap of my boxers and kind of “flip” my wang out without ever touching it, “flip” it back in and zip up when I’m done. If it’s a toilet I flush with my foot, and if it’s a urinal I don’t flush at all. I then grab a paper towel without touching the handle and use it to open the door. As I’m walking out I throw the paper towel in the trashcan that’s behind almost every public bathroom door. > > If a paper towel can’t be obtained without touching some sort of handle, or if they have one of those stupid hippie air-dryers, then I push on that triangle “arm” thing at the top of the door and voila. > What have I just done that requires soap and water? \*\* Well, you haven`t done #2. What sort of cleanup method do you use if you have to wipe? I just go about my business and then wash up afterwards. Whatever I touched to get into the bathroom scares me more than what may be on my own body. I also take the towels that I dried my hands with to open the door. Then just deposit them in the nearest can. Usually one is right inside the bathroom door. I DON`T understand how anyone can wipe their tail and then not wash. I have seen this numerous times where guys leave the stalls and head right back to work without washing. Yikes!! ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/47 "2003-07-18T18:22:07Z")
So are you non-washers not touching anything else during the course of the day either? Or are you washing your hands elsewhere? Part of the reason I wash in the restroom is because my hands get dirty doing other things, and it’s a convenient time and place to wash them. Pretty much everything you touch everywhere has germs on it; you should be washing your hands regularly even if you don’t touch anything in the bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![Contrary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@Contrary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrary)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/48 "2003-07-18T18:39:39Z")
I was my hands at home, and I use antibacterial gel at work. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/49 "2003-07-18T19:15:32Z")
Well, I’m not a hand-washer. At work I fake it, run a little water, make a half-hearted gesture at the soap squirter, then check the mirror for stray food bits in my teeth while the water runs. To spare you poor skittish saps from the danger of my germs, I press the flusher with my index knuckle, and open the door with my foot or shoulder. I swear, when I hear people talk of “urine vapor” I get the urge to start incessantly muttering “Purity Of Essence”… Really, people. There are far dirtier things in your life that you handle constantly without doing the obsessive hand-washing routine. Keyboards are naaaaaasty. Remote controls, even more disgusting. Telephones, don’t get me started. Why aren’t you horrified at the food handler at McD’s who is wearing the same disgusting greasy headset shared by ten other people? You’ll let your rugrat crawl around on a carpet filled with skin flakes, fecal dust, and hair mites, but think a bathroom is too dirty? Unless you are also doing the Howard Hughes routine throughout your life, don’t whine about the bathrooms, they are far cleaner than you give them credit for. Color me baffled about the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbe5ce/32.png) [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/50 "2003-07-19T01:09:55Z")
this is the Cecil cite: > **[Why are men supposed to wash their hands after urination? Plus: urine therapy!](https://www.straightdope.com/21342195/why-are-men-supposed-to-wash-their-hands-after-urination-plus-urine-therapy)** > > Dear Cecil: > First, an (elderly) joke. > A Harvard man and a Yale man are at the urinal. They finish and zip up. The Harvard man proceeds to the sink to wash his hands, while the Yale man immediately... nice horror story. It really sounds like that if I touch my privates, then I jam my finger into your gut and penetrate your skin then theres a chance you might get a serious or even fatal infection if you cant get to a doctor for 2 or three days. :dubious: I’ll have to go along with **AllShookDown** on this one. If the coliform bacteria found in my privates is as deadly as the henta virus, then I may have some concern for other peoples safety but if all it does is gross a few wimps and obsessive-compulsives out there, then I will not take too much effort in the matter. Look you hand washers out there, all of you do the same thing and most of the time this cannot be avoided. You attach a certain amount of coliform bacteria into your hands while doing you business (except for the few that use disposable tongs) you run to the sink while the stuff is swimming in the skin oil of your hand. You touch the facet handle to turn it on. You deposit your form of coliform on to that handle along with countless of others just before you. You squit the soap into your hands, getting more bacteria from other people. You wash your hands but you never get all of the stuff out (even Cecil says so) You dutifully turn off the water and get that stuff back into your hands but now you got a whole bunch from other people which you are not immune from. Next, the paper towel. How do you get it? Pull the knob, just like the last dozen people, nice bacteria pool. You dry off your hands but like Cecil says you dont get it all off. Some use those blowers. Greeeat. How do you turn it on? push the button which is infected with the same stuff you are trying to wash off. Then finally, thinking you have done your deed and have made yourself safe for the world, you leave the bathroom. how? by yanking on the same door knob that peeople yank on to get out and some dont even wash their hands remember? Given the ineffectiveness of this washing of hands thing, I would think there would be an epidemic of e-coli and coliform diseases. Last place I heard that had that was a Jack-in-the-Box in Washington. I never eat there. I will confess I dont wash my hands every single time I go to the bathroom and pee. Sometimes, I do rinse with water afterwards but not all the time. I almost never go do a #2 in a public bathroom and then I always wash thoroughly (soap and water, scrubbing) I love the bathrooms that have the auto-activation sensors especially in the sinks. But you still have to touch the towel dispensers and door. I dont worry about it. I never got this coliform bacteria thingy. My children have never got it. My co-workers who are the most likely victims, never got it. My friends never got it. Chances are, neither will most of you. But you can keep on going “EWWWWW!” “Groossss!” “Nasty!” as if that will persuade me to change my lifetsyle against an germ that usually has potentially nil chance of hurting anyone. I mean think about it. If this coliform bacteria is so dangerous, anyone performing oral sex is doomed. ---
**Author:** ![gkkk4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gkkk4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkkk4)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933/51 "2003-07-19T01:32:40Z")
Very funny cartoon I saw one time: guy comes out of the restroom door into a restaurant while a big neon sign over the door starts flashing DIDN’T WASH, everyone staring. While I know that all you who point out all the germs on the fixtures are right, I still can’t stand not washing. Ick! Luckily my work has the nice “turn themselves on automatically” faucets - one source of contamination eliminated, at least. And paper towels that pull out of the dispenser one at a time, so you’re only touching the one you use. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-everyone-including-women-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-rest-room/188933.md?page=2)