The sign is not laminated, so because of its position above the sink and below the mirror, it's been repeatedly soaked by splashing water from the sink. And therefore might be harboring all sorts of filth from dirty hands that have washed in that sink.
It says to use soap and water. Important to note that it does not specify anti-bacterial soap. But I have a feeling that's what was in the dispenser - some kind of harsh smelling pink potion, whatever it was.
It says, "Rub your hands vigorously"
Isn't that what you do when you're in a hurry? Isn't slowly and methodically washing one's hands more effective?
Besides... WebMD with AOL Health - Cleanliness Rules Germaphobes' Lives
"It's true that hand washing is the single most important thing you can do to prevent catching an infectious disease, including colds, flu, hepatitis A, meningitis, and infectious diarrhea, according to the CDC. But that's not license to scrub hands raw."
This is the best one: "Turn off the water using a PAPER TOWEL instead of bare hands"
I completely understand the logic here. Touching the faucet handle that you touched before washing your hands, would seem to defeat the purpose of washing your hands, yes.
But that's where the slippery slope comes in... Wouldn't touching almost anything after washing your hands "defeat the purpose" of hand washing?
Why doesn't it also instruct the person to open the bathroom door to leave using one's elbow? And then why not instruct the person then to not touch anything else with one's hands? I mean, how far can you take this? Instruct the person to not touch anything, ever, unless it's been washed down in chlorine? Or at least the possible carcinogen triclosan?
It seems to me that this "method" of hand washing comes at cleanliness and disease prevention from the let's try to control other people standpoint, which seems to me, to be flawed.
Are not the old Wash Hands Before Eating and Wash Hands Before Touching Your Mouth or Your Eyes rules more efficient, reasonable, and effective in preventing the spread of disease, rather than trying to keep your hands, and everyone else's hands, completely pristine and germ free?
Because unless you have a cut on your hand, most common germs that might accumulate on one's hands are rather innocuous unless they actually get into your mouth, for example. And any germ that is dangerous simply being on your hand, is dangerous to be in the air, and not touching the faucet is not going to save you from an airborne transmitted contagious illness!
That said, I don't want my food, for example, to contain someone else's bodily fluid, even if it's not diseased. Even a trace amount strikes me as rather icky. So I'm not saying I'm comfortable with people never washing their hands, for instance.
I tend to wash my hands fairly regularly. Not because I'm necessarily a major germaphobe, but because I have a terribly entrenched habit of touching my face a lot. If I could just stop touching my face, I would only need to wash my hands before eating. As it stands, I am a bit of a germaphobe.
At least I realize this and can admit it, and keep relatively to reasonable hygeine, rather than obsessive hygeine.
I think we, as a society, need to get a grip because at this point it's turning out that the cure might be worse than the disease...
I shower every morning, I make Nick wash his hands all the time, I wash now and then... But honestly, I would gravitate more towards the George Carlin school of thought on the matter... lol. (see also "You are all diseased")
Posted by Tim Pintsch | Tuesday 10 May 2005 4:11PM
Well, man, it's good to wash your hands. I was always taught, as I stated above, that one ought to wash hands before eating or touching one's mouth or eyes. Good rule.
It's this don't touch anything after washing your hands idea that starts to get a little foolish. Where someone's trying to keep one's hands all pristine, like the hand model in Zoolander who keeps his hand encased in a hyperbaric chamber.
I saw an ad for Thursday's episode of Dr. Phil about OCD, where they showed a woman closing drawers with her foot.
I guess my point is that there's a point at which living life is more important than stringently attending to cleanliness!
Posted by Chloe | Tuesday 10 May 2005 5:03PM
That paper-towel over the sink knobs is a bit unusual in handashing instructions, isn't it? Funny now that I think of it I usually will put some kind of paper over the door handle when I'm leaving a restroom but never on the sink knob. Good idea, actually. Although many places nowadays have automatic sinks, where the water comes out with the aid of a sensor, so you don't have to touch any knobs at all.
As far as rubbing vigorously-- I think that is standard advice (I know I've read it somewhere else) because it's not just the soap that helps kill germs but also the rubbing action. I read somewhere that that is why it's more important that you scrub your bathtub than that you put some disinfectant cleaner on it, because the scrubbing removes more germs than the disinfectant does.
Posted by Alison | Tuesday 10 May 2005 5:10PM
The funny thing is that I used to think the automatic faucets were to prevent people from leaving the faucets running in public restrooms. But maybe it is part of the whole germaphobia thing. Good invention at any rate. I think it saves the cleaning crew some work as well, as the faucets themselves probably don't get as dirty since nobody's touching them.
I knew that about scrubbing the bathtub... It kind of goes along with the idea that washing hands with just water will get rid of most bacteria. Indeed, most of the time I wash my hands at home I don't actually use the soap. Say when I get honey on my hands when making tea, and just want to get rid of the stickiness.
My issue with the "vigorously" is that they already went through the instructions for thoroughly rubbing the hands all over, short of going up to the elbows. Is the "vigorously" part really all that necessary? Couldn't they just say "rub hands well", for instance? The word "vigorously" just sounds too much like instructing one to rub hands raw. Like to the point of taking off that filthy offending layer of skin. haha!! ;)
Posted by Chloe | Tuesday 10 May 2005 5:21PM
Wired magazine had an article this past issue on how overblown the germ issue actually is. Backed it up with some pretty good numbers too.
The number one household spot to pick up something nasty? The kitchen cutting board. The two best chances outside the house to pick up something fun are the office telephone receiver and the grocery store's shopping cart handle. Interesting stuff.
I have a two year old, myself, and I just let her play and get dirty. Hand washing before meals and bath and the end of the day are about all I worry about. I figure, the more she gets sick now, the better her immune system will be later.
Posted by dave | Thursday 12 May 2005 8:59AM
dave: I couldn't find the Wired Magazine article on-line. Darn!
Interesting point about the grocery store shopping cart... In the one Price Chopper I go to (in Dunmore, PA), they have a wet nap dispenser in the front of the store for wiping your hands & grocery carts. (I don't know if they contain triclosan or not.)
I know I've seen the cashiers at the Redner's in Scranton using waterless hand sanitizer (without triclosan). I know when I worked as a cashier at a hardware store, and then a bank teller (many years ago), I used to catch colds & stuff a lot more often. I assumed because of handling so much cash money from so many people.
As for kids... Kiddiewinks get dirty. It's part of being a kid. And I think washing hands before eating, and before bed seems perfectly reasonable & adequate.
In fact, I would further say that a baby that hasn't left the house all day certainly doesn't need a bath every single night, because they're getting their face & doopah washed constantly throughout the day, and it's not like babies get underarm B.O.
The telephone receiver reminds me of Douglas Adams, in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books... The pioneer scientist people who were wiped out by a disease contracted by a dirty telephone, because the maintenance crews hadn't arrived on the planet.
I sometimes bring that up (heehee) when I talk about the importance of many professions - not just people in so-called prestigious lines of work. We'd be in a world of trouble if there were no trash collectors or the people working at the sewage treatment plants!
My step-father is a retired scientist inventor who was in WWII, then apparently worked on something related to the bomb, and made some noteworthy contributions with his scientific inventions... But on that score at least, that doesn't make him "better than" my late father who was also in WWII, but instead afterwards went on to work for a toilet paper company for something over 30 years. I should note that I like my step-father more - but probably because he seems to like my mother more than my father did, and probably because I'm too much like my father... It's definitely not anything to do with their professions. Because is a nation full of filthy bottoms - a lifestyle of shitty asses a culture that needs to be protected with a bomb? haha. What's more important, wiping your butt or having mirrored windows on buildings?
Now that I've grown up, that's just my non-snobby way of looking at the world and all the people in it. Whether you're an "infrastructure engineer" or a "software engineer", there's an equal place for you in my view. There are plenty of plumbers who make better spouses & parents than some of the world's great musicians. (I just think of Motzart or John Lennon. Definitely wouldn't have wanted to marry, or have either of them as my father!)
Posted by Chloe | Thursday 12 May 2005 11:54AM
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superficiality >>If the facade is what's important to you, all you wind up with is an illusion. Disillusionment is the gift of substance.
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Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed the passage with you?
I shower every morning, I make Nick wash his hands all the time, I wash now and then... But honestly, I would gravitate more towards the George Carlin school of thought on the matter... lol. (see also "You are all diseased")
Well, man, it's good to wash your hands. I was always taught, as I stated above, that one ought to wash hands before eating or touching one's mouth or eyes. Good rule.
That paper-towel over the sink knobs is a bit unusual in handashing instructions, isn't it? Funny now that I think of it I usually will put some kind of paper over the door handle when I'm leaving a restroom but never on the sink knob. Good idea, actually. Although many places nowadays have automatic sinks, where the water comes out with the aid of a sensor, so you don't have to touch any knobs at all.
As far as rubbing vigorously-- I think that is standard advice (I know I've read it somewhere else) because it's not just the soap that helps kill germs but also the rubbing action. I read somewhere that that is why it's more important that you scrub your bathtub than that you put some disinfectant cleaner on it, because the scrubbing removes more germs than the disinfectant does.
Wired magazine had an article this past issue on how overblown the germ issue actually is. Backed it up with some pretty good numbers too.
The number one household spot to pick up something nasty? The kitchen cutting board. The two best chances outside the house to pick up something fun are the office telephone receiver and the grocery store's shopping cart handle. Interesting stuff.
I have a two year old, myself, and I just let her play and get dirty. Hand washing before meals and bath and the end of the day are about all I worry about. I figure, the more she gets sick now, the better her immune system will be later.
