Wash your freaking hands!

[cantdrv55]

What possible reason can one have to forego handwashing after using the bathroom? It’s commonplace in airport bathrooms. I can’t believe how many just walk out after doing their business. That’s nasty. Anyone else bothered by this? Am I becoming a germophobe? I’m thinking of carrying hand sanitizer when I travel now.

[wildthing]

Starts at home. Unfortunately I don’t think every parent teaches this. My parents drilled this into our heads early, and now my 3 kids are learning the habit. After doing your business. Right before eating. Minimum.

Sometimes just as they get into the house, they have to wash hands.

We are also training them to keep their hands off their eyes and mouths. Especially after touching things that were touched by others.

[Evans, Marv]

When you think about it, you should wash your hands before you go to the bathroom as well as maybe after. How many door knobs, dollar bills, counter tops, etc., etc., etc. do you gather germs from before you walk into the bathroom and touch your cleanly privates? I'd imagine those are cleaner most of the time than all those germy things you interact with between interacting with yourself in the bathroom.

[Bill Douglas]

I wash my hands before I touch...

Not original; I think it was Don King who came up with that.

[porsche4life]

Bothers the hell out of me. I try to avoid touching things as much as I can when traveling, and head straight for the shower when I get home or to my destination. Feel like I’ve been fighting a cold for a few months now, and I have a feeling the few trips I’ve had to take lately have added to that.

[ckelly78z]

You know your a mechanic when you have to wash your hands before touching anything. You will probably get more germs from the door handle exiting the bathroom AFTER you washed your hands already.

My wife's boss is a germaphobe and has hand sanitizer in every room, and all of his cars...he uses it hourly which seems like he is setting himself up for a reduced immunity to infections.

[pavulon]

Have watched more than one surgeon skip hand washing after using the bathroom. Called one of them on it and was told "there's nothing on my junk that's not all over the rest of me." Probably. Certainly so if you don't wash your hands.

[piscator]

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/in-depth/germs/art-20045289

"Germs live everywhere. You can find germs (microbes) in the air; on food, plants and animals; in soil and water — on just about every other surface, including your body." -- even on a surgeon's junk.

'Hand-washing. Often overlooked, hand-washing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect yourself from germs and most infections. Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing or eating food, after coughing or sneezing, after changing a diaper, and after using the toilet. When soap and water aren't available, alcohol-based hand-sanitizing gels can offer protection."

[LEAKYSEALS951]

In a microbiology class we had two interesting experiments,
IIRC- and this was 25 years ago-

In one, we washed our hands as thoroughly as possible. Even after washing, everyone still had E-coli that could be cultured from their hands (specifically- fingernail beds).

Everyone.

Washing hands, especially vigorously scrubbing (you would think it would work better) to the point where you were almost scratching youself- think something abrasive like GOJO , and then culturing what grew had a result that was reverse of expected- for everyone. It did not work better.
MORE bacteria grew on the agar plates. The rational was that vigorous scrubbing of the skin broke away the outer layers of epidermis, exposing underlying bacteria which were now released onto the petri dish.

I know a couple (both physicians) who have their children religiously disinfect their hands for everything. As the kids sit there and spend a paltry 3 seconds doing it, I sit and chuckle thinking about all the resistant bacteria they are cultivating. Even some of the industrial grade disinfectants don't really do much if not used as directed.



When I'm in a public place, I spend more time not touching doorknobs/etc- for example, grabbing up as high as I can on the door frame to push the door out instead of grabbing the handle.

Not saying don't wash your hands, but we live in a much dirtier world than you can imagine.

Wash all you want.

[Gretch]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Have watched more than one surgeon skip hand washing after using the bathroom. Called one of them on it and was told "there's nothing on my junk that's not all over the rest of me." Probably. Certainly so if you don't wash your hands.

Watched a guy going into the bathroom use the hand sanitizer. sayz he: Hey I know where my junk has been, my hands, not so much........"

[cabmandone]

I've seen enough people do this that I use my shirt to open the door when I exit the restroom. I figure why wash my hands if I'm gonna touch that door handle that everyone who didn't wash their hands touched.

[red-beard]

When I went to India a bit over a year ago, my doctor said to carry hand sanitizer and to use it. It is the first trip to that country where I didn't pickup anything. I now carry hand sanitizer everywhere.

One of the dirtiest parts of the plane? Tray table. I spray some sanitizer on the surfaces around my seat.

[Baz]

I'm a "hand washer" - especially in the men's room afterwards - and now will be prior - thanks to this thread.

I also hand wash all my own dishes at home - water as hot as I can stand it - and plenty of dish washer soap. That has to help, I would think.

Generally I stay pretty healthy wrt colds, flu, etc, etc.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by cabmando

I've seen enough people do this that I use my shirt to open the door when I exit the restroom. I figure why wash my hands if I'm gonna touch that door handle that everyone who didn't wash their hands touched.

Most places have a trash bin at the exit of the facility , I use that as a sign to use the paper towel I dried my hands with as a " handle buffer " . Open the door with paper towel in palm of hand , hold door with foot and throw paper towel in trash bin . I don't consider myself a germ-a-phobe but guys not washing their hands after juggling their junk is not a DNA transfer I'm interested in

[LEAKYSEALS951]

https://www.tested.com/science/life/459452-doing-it-wrong-hot-water-and-antibacterial-soap-dont-help-kill-germs/

Another thing I was thinking about (germs in general- specifically the numbers) was Listerine- "Kills millions of germs on contact."
You can almost hear them dying as your mouth stings with alcohol burning. It has to be- it feels so much cleaner.

Problem is- there are billions of germs in your mouth. Lop off all those zeros, and it's like saying:

"You have a thousands of germs in your mouth" "Listerine just killed two of them on contact"


.. I still use it though.

[billybek]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Most places have a trash bin at the exit of the facility , I use that as a sign to use the paper towel I dried my hands with as a " handle buffer " . Open the door with paper towel in palm of hand , hold door with foot and throw paper towel in trash bin . I don't consider myself a germ-a-phobe but guys not washing their hands after juggling their junk is not a DNA transfer I'm interested in

Started doing the same thing many years ago.
Was in a large engineering company's machine room on a service call when the call of nature interrupted.
Some guy that was in the stall next to me had dropped a bomb, wiped the back door and left the restroom without washing his hands.
That was the moment that I started using paper towel to open the restroom door to leave.

[piscator]

Aah, all right -- I'll make a confession -- I'm phobic about those jellied Isopropyl hand sanitizers. I mean, they kill germs. That's what I'm told. So if I use it -- I've got DEAD germs all over me. Oooooh, that's disgusting! Dead putrifying germs! And if I use sanitizer again, say in half an hour, that's MORE dead germs! Lying on top of the other dead germs. Then if I go to the restroom and use sanitizer, I've got dead bathroom germs, on top of two layers of even deader, decaying germs. Yuck! Then, touching things on a subway, that's dead subway germs, mounded on all the other putrid germs. I'll need a scraper to get 'em off! What if I shake hands with some creepy guy? And use gel. That's dead 'creepy guy' germs on top of dead bathroom/subway germs, on top of nasty, disgusting, germs, germs, germs, germs, germs, germs!!!!!

I need to sit down. ;-)

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by piscator

.........I've got dead bathroom germs, on top of two layers of even deader, decaying germs.

Ha! Believe that should be "even more deader".

Germs are a with us but feces/urine/d*ck-cheese on a door handle is preventable to some degree.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

I wash my hands before I touch...

Not original; I think it was Don King who came up with that.

It was.

I've been a a faithful follower most of my life although I do wash again after.

Makes perfect sense when you think about it.

Your hands are way dirtier than your junk which is protected by at least one layer of clothing all day.

Why touch what could actually be the cleanest part of your body with what's likely to be the dirtiest?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Most places have a trash bin at the exit of the facility , I use that as a sign to use the paper towel I dried my hands with as a " handle buffer " . Open the door with paper towel in palm of hand , hold door with foot and throw paper towel in trash bin . I don't consider myself a germ-a-phobe but guys not washing their hands after juggling their junk is not a DNA transfer I'm interested in

If it's not an automatic faucet use the paper towel to turn faucet handle off.

Think about it, it gets touched by dirty hands to turn it on.......