Washing Our Hands: Are We Doing It Right?

Throughout the years, as friends get to know me and some of my quirks, I have become the object of teasing as I cringe (act out) at several germ-related things.  I am not a germaphobe (at least I don’t think I am), but I’m sure we all have faced certain situations that make us twitch and think eww.  Recently, I have been faced with a lot of these situations in the bathroom.

Some time ago, an amusing/disturbing fact started to circulate conversations.  The fact was that, on average, one indirectly touches an X amount of penises daily.  I don’t remember the exact amount, but the idea is still generally unpleasant.  I was slightly appalled at the fact that some men did not wash their hands after using the toilet. Why should I be subjected to indirectly touching X amount of private parts daily because some men lacked good hygiene?  I know the question/thought is slightly ridiculous, so we shall leave it to the follies of youth.  However, as I mentioned before, recent situations have made me wonder if my question should have been why should I be subjected to indirectly touching pee on a daily basis because some women lacked good hygiene?

Indeed, all too often I have noticed as a range of women step out of the stalls and head directly for the door, or merely wet their hands, or (the furthest I have seen) grab a little soap and immediately rinse it off.  I would find it highly amusing if later I catch them using hand sanitizers or showing scruples.

KMRS Health News

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has a variety of topics on health, one of those topics being “handwashing.”  Reading through the information, I couldn’t help but wonder if there is anyone who ever follows all of the instructions.  As an example, I will list verbatim the times when they recommend people to wash their hands.

• Before, during, and after preparing food
• Before eating food
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick
• Before and after treating a cut or wound
• After using the toilet
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
• After touching garbage

Further down, the article instructs on the right way of washing your hands, and the reason hand sanitizer should not be used as a substitute (if it can be helped).  First, the hand sanitizer should be alcohol based with the minimum of 60% alcohol.  However, even though they eliminate many types of microbes, they do not eliminate all germs.  Also, using this method does not allow you to scrub off oil or other substances.  Thus, water and soap are still a better alternative.

Furthermore, as I have recently come to learn, using regular soap yields, in the long run, better results than anti-bacterial soap.  Bacteria are resilient and can evolve, mutate, and adapt to new environments/situations.  Because there has been an overuse of antibiotics, bacteria have become stronger and immune to the medicine we have today, to the point of being scary.  Many complaints have been made about the meat industry because farmers keep pumping antibiotics into their cattle to have healthier cows that produce more milk and yield more meat.  However, in doing so, they are helping bacteria create resistance to the medications we have today, making them less and less effective against pathogens and us more and more vulnerable.

Now, I know what you may be thinking, perhaps we should not focus so much on cleanliness and allow the body build up its own resistance.  However, that is not quite right.  Even though it is true that some medication usage and good hygiene techniques are perhaps causing more harm than good (an example would be that lice prefer clean hair), we can’t forget that part of the reason we are living longer is the measures taken for cleaner life-styles (available clean water, showering more frequently, etc.).

So handwashing: one of the best preventive methods for the spread of diseases and infections.