Do You Wash your Hands After Using the Toilet?

[Deleted User]

It is very important to wash hands properly with soap. It takes about 20 seconds and is a very good way of keeping the bugs away from ourselves. You can pick them up anywhere, people pick their noses, sneeze in their hands and then they are touching handrails, coins etc. I try never to open/close loo doors with bare hands and always wash as soon as I arrive home after being on the bus. Gels are a stop gap and I keep one in the car but not as efficient as handwashing with soap

custardy

tinktinktinkerbell wrote: »

i have to be 100% honest and say that when im at home and if ive just had a wee i dont (unless im preparing food right after) , i do if ive had a number 2 though all the time

and i do if out no matter what but then i also use hand gel if out to avoid getting peoples cold and flu germs

and i always wash my hands as soon as i come in after being out

well I'm shocked.........

scheming_gypsy

jackieb wrote: »

That's what my OH says. He says it's clean and he manages not to get pee on it.

I still have a go at him if he doesn't wash his hands though.

.

you wouldn't complain at him if you got stung by a jelly fish! you'd be begging him to widdle on you

euronorris

TBH, we should all be more concerned about our kitchen sponges. They need to be replaced regularly as they the amount of bacteria/bugs (including some of the really nasty ones) that can grow in those sponges is astounding.

Mythbusters did a show looking at things like the toilet seat, kitchen sponges, keyboards etc to see which was worst, and if I remember correctly, kitchen sponge was by far the worst. Mine gets replaced at least once a week now, if not more. Money came 2nd! So my mother's insistence that I always wash my hands after handling money had some merit in it:

"Many objects that people touch every day are dirtier than a toilet seat.
confirmed
Adam and Jamie chose a total of 8 objects to test for cleanliness: toilet seat, money, kitchen sponge, hotel room remote, computer keyboard, light switch, cell phone, and shopping cart. They swabbed each surface for 10 seconds and created Petri dishes from the swabs that incubated overnight. Their first method of measurement was to count the number of microorganism colonies on each dish. They found that the toilet seat sample actually had the fewest colonies, while the kitchen sponge sample had more than they could count:

1. kitchen sponge (most colonies)
2. money
3. light switch
4. computer keyboard
5. hotel remote
6. shopping cart
7. cell phone
8. toilet seat (fewest colonies)

However, they always wanted to account for the “nastiness” or harmfulness of the types of organisms on each Petri dish, so they had a microbiologist re-rank the samples. The list was as follows.

1. kitchen sponge (most nasty)
2. money
3. light switch
4. computer keyboard
5. toilet seat
6. cell phone
7. shopping cart
8. hotel remote (least nasty)

Finally, Adam and Jamie decided they needed a larger sample size to provide better results. They enlisted a group of biology students at UC Berkeley to collect more samples from the top five dirtiest surfaces. After collecting and analyzing these samples, the final list was as follows.

1. kitchen sponge (most dirty)
2. money
3. computer keyboard
4. toilet seat
5. light switch (least dirty)"

http://mythbustersresults.com/hidden-nasties

So, with the toilet seat quite far down the lists, washing our hands after using the toilet isn't anywhere near as important as changing our kitchen sponges regularly.

Lotus-eater

peachyprice wrote: »

You just know who's not going to like this post Lotus :rotfl::rotfl:

I think you were right!

Because it got removed.

emeraldbugle

When we went on a plane in summer, there was no soap in the toilet, I had to wait to wash mine and my daughter's hands in the next toilet. Meanwhile someone went in the toilet we had just used. I asked the air hostess to put some soap in, she was waiting ages for this other person to come out. She gave up waiting in the end, they were taking ages. This person came out and just went and sat down, ewww, so obvious they hadn't washed their hands. I then had to ask the air hostess again for the soap.

I always ask if there is none, I never understand why there is none in some places. I had to ask at the local swimming pool too! Eww.

Person_one

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I think you were right!

Because it got removed.

I'd have thanked it if were still up.

Person_one

emeraldbugle wrote: »

When we went on a plane in summer, there was no soap in the toilet, I had to wait to wash mine and my daughter's hands in the next toilet. Meanwhile someone went in the toilet we had just used. I asked the air hostess to put some soap in, she was waiting ages for this other person to come out. She gave up waiting in the end, they were taking ages. This person came out and just went and sat down, ewww, so obvious they hadn't washed their hands. I then had to ask the air hostess again for the soap.

I always ask if there is none, I never understand why there is none in some places. I had to ask at the local swimming pool too! Eww.

Obviously washing with soap is better, but washing with just water and then thoroughly drying your hands does actually get rid of most of the bacteria that aren't your established normal flora. They get 'knocked off' or transferred to the paper towel and go in the bin to die.

rising_from_the_ashes

EdgEy wrote: »

I probably wash my hands 10 times in an average day - especially if I'm interacting with computers or other sorts of plastic surfaces, for some reason I tend to get sweaty fingertips/palms.

The ones that have started to worry me a lot lately are the copies at work and ..... chip & pin machines - think how many people use these in sm / shops every day and I bet they rarely get a proper clean .... urgh!:eek:

Person_one

kittie wrote: »

It is very important to wash hands properly with soap. It takes about 20 seconds and is a very good way of keeping the bugs away from ourselves. You can pick them up anywhere, people pick their noses, sneeze in their hands and then they are touching handrails, coins etc. I try never to open/close loo doors with bare hands and always wash as soon as I arrive home after being on the bus. Gels are a stop gap and I keep one in the car but not as efficient as handwashing with soap

For crying out loud...

The companies making disinfectant and 'antibacterial' products have done an alarmingly good job of convincing us we're in constant danger from 'germs'!

Yes, washing your hands with soap and hot water, very good, basic hygiene, do that, great.

But the rest is honestly just very very silly for a person in normal health. I and millions like me go around every day touching door handles, money, toilet flushes, railings, items in shops, heck I pick up dog poo several times a day and am forever fishing tennis balls out of muddy puddles! We aren't all constantly battling deathly infections!

Alcohol gels and disinfectants aren't nearly as effective as people think they are. My microbiology lecturer says if he could change two things in history, it would be over prescription of antibiotics and over use of home 'hygiene' products. They've actually done more harm than good by increasing the resistance of the organisms they target.