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US Government Study Concludes: You're Probably Washing Your Hands Wrong (cnn.com)
97% of us don't wash our hands properly, a new government study concludes. An anonymous reader quotes CNN:
The study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows most consumers failed to wash their hands and rub with soap for 20 seconds. That's the amount of time recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says that washing for shorter periods means fewer germs are removed. "Numerous" study participants also didn't dry their hands with a clean towel.
The study involved 383 people in six test kitchen facilities in the metro Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina and in rural Smithfield, North Carolina, the USDA said... About half the time, participants spread bacteria to spice containers while preparing burgers, and 11% of the time, they spread bacteria to refrigerator handles... The results from the USDA's study indicate our hand-washing habits may be getting worse. A study done in 2013 by Michigan State University found only 5% of people washed their hands correctly....
A separate study released this month found 49 of 100 towels tested showed growth of bacteria normally found in or on the human body.
CNN helpfully provides the proper method for handwashing. (Wet hands, lather them with soap -- between fingers and under fingernails -- and then scrub for at least 20 seconds.) They recommend singing the alphabet song once or "Happy Birthday" twice.
Just in America, foodborne illnesses sicken 48 million people each year, sending 128,000 to hospitals and resulting in 3,000 deaths.
The study involved 383 people in six test kitchen facilities in the metro Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina and in rural Smithfield, North Carolina, the USDA said... About half the time, participants spread bacteria to spice containers while preparing burgers, and 11% of the time, they spread bacteria to refrigerator handles... The results from the USDA's study indicate our hand-washing habits may be getting worse. A study done in 2013 by Michigan State University found only 5% of people washed their hands correctly....
A separate study released this month found 49 of 100 towels tested showed growth of bacteria normally found in or on the human body.
CNN helpfully provides the proper method for handwashing. (Wet hands, lather them with soap -- between fingers and under fingernails -- and then scrub for at least 20 seconds.) They recommend singing the alphabet song once or "Happy Birthday" twice.
Just in America, foodborne illnesses sicken 48 million people each year, sending 128,000 to hospitals and resulting in 3,000 deaths.
Our environments should be clean, not sterile. We have defenses, evolved over millions of years, in place specifically for handling these things. Unless you're immuno-compromised, going into surgery, or work in a restaurant, there's no reason to not allow your immune system to do its job.
Studies have shown that excessive cleanliness increases chances of developing allergies.
We've known this approximately forever. Expecting people to do this perfect hand washing doesn't seem to be working, from a systems perspective. Maybe invent a box that people can just stick their hands in for thirty seconds, emerging perfectly washed. Or keep complaining about them being lazy and just keep letting them get other people sick. Whatever you prefer.
and the "solution" is to put lots of lotion on, which gets grease and grime all over everything, creating germ risk elsewhere.
Table-ized A.I.
Don't wipe your ass and eat the finger food without washing your hands, but if you always wash like you're preparing for doing surgery, you're going to do more damage than good.
For uncompensated public performances of copyrighted music.
Just remember next time an immaculately dressed gentlemen sings the alphabet next to you in a Branson gas station restroom while knowingly eyeing your back as you empty your bladder, he's definitely not aiming to cut out your liver out and cook it in front of you, watching you die a horrible death.
He's just practicing the USDA approved method for washing one's hands.
How much time per year do I lose to foodborn illnesses?
How much time would I lose due to washing my hands for 20+ seconds at a time after every use of the toilet?
Off topic, but my grandmother said that when she installed a dishwasher, her family stopped catching diseases from each other. Presumably the dishwasher used hotter water than hand washing, and also washed more thoroughly. Now that's a cleanliness method which actually SAVES time and effort!
I'm a fastidious almost OCD hand-washer, my hands don't dry out and crack.
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... does not wash their hands on this subject: telling us how to maintain our hygiene.
Well, they should lead by good example; please wash your hands!
Oh, wait...
They recommend singing the alphabet song once or "Happy Birthday" twice.
That explains all the fake happy people at work these days.
Goodbye, Slashdot!
Because if you weren't doing it wrong, you wouldn't need the government or their experts or their journalist friends to lecture you. And then what would those people do?
and the fellow from Harvard were in the lavatory and both used the urinal. The fellow from Yale zipped up and prepared to leave. The fellow from Harvard proceeded to wash his hands and said, "At Harvard they teach is to wash our hands after urinating." The fellow from Yale replied, "At Yale they teach us not to urinate on our hands."
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Congratulations! You win "Idiotic Dick of the Day" for Jun 30th, 2018 Tune back in tomorrow to see if you win "Idiotic Dick of the Month".
Good luck, I am pulling for you!
Politics aside; this is still front-page news about people not knowing how to wash their hands. Front. Page. News. Let alone Slashdot.
???
I tend to rant.
They recommend singing the alphabet song once or "Happy Birthday" twice.
Luckily, due to recent court rulings, you no longer owe royalties for singing while you wash your hands. Because of these lower costs, from now on more people will have cleaner hands.
Dude, you think way too much about anus. It's a beautiful day and it's a holiday weekend. Go outside and have some fun.
You are welcome on my lawn.
He is going around pissing on his hands then shaking hands with other people. Stuff like that is sure to spread some bacteria.
So people don't go pissing on your hands before greeting people.
I've had probable food poisoning once in 40 years. As it was Mexican, it's probable it was salmonella. This germophobia is completely an overreaction and puts the immune system on hold with no real defense for something real.
Removing all germs is why more and more people get sick so often. They're so germophobic their bodies don't develop immunity to minor bugs, let alone the bigger ones. These are the same people who run to the doctor when they have a sniffle and demand an antibiotic which is why we are beginning to see antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The best thing a child can do when growing up is eat two pounds of dirt.
NOTE: this does not mean I don't wash my hands after using the restroom or that people who handle food should not wash their hands. I'm only saying that building up an immunity would go a long way to helping mitigate outbreaks.
The thought that people *only* touched that subway post must be very comforting...
the holes you shit from
Wait, there's more than one? I must be doing it wrong.
Do they comment on the use, or non-use, of anti-bacterial soaps?
Various sources say to never use anti-bacterial soap (including Dr House!), but I'm not sure if I've seen a definitive study on it.
I tend to use whatever is sold in the shop (which, for liquid soap at least, is likely anti-bacterial).
It's because of the environment they are both stored in.
Honey is sealed in wax in a hive, and this has no access to air. It does have a natural anti-bacterial agent in it too. No oxygen and no bacteria means it can't spoil.
Jam, when made, is stored in air-tight sterile (boiled, typically) jars, typically while the jam is still very hot (so it can be poured into the jar before it sets). Again, no oxygen, and no bacteria, so it won't spoil.
Leave a jar of jam open out of the fridge and it'll spoil in a few days. Similarly with honey.
Your bandying about of "mental disease" makes me think you are a ProgLib living in the SF Bay Area If not, you should move there -- they are fond of calling everyone not like themselves "crazy" or "mentally ill" That's not to say you don't have a point, but it's a "perception" not an illness. As in obese people perceive normal people as underweight and vice versa. However, we as humans all have our biases, and having a bias DOES NOT make you mentally ill, merely human Frankly I wish people such as yourself would get some help. Maybe get out and interact with others, take up a sport or other social activity -- there's clearly something not healthy about your lifestyle and way of thinking about other human beings. It's like the guy that walks around all day calling everyone else an asshole for every minor transgression -- oblivious to the fact that he's the one that's actually the asshole Maybe you could start by taking a good look at your biases in every day life. It might help you relate to human beings better
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You wipe your ass, pull up your pants and do them up, then do up your belt. THEN you wash your hands. Your belt, pants button, and zipper are probably fucking disgusting.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
if most people flushed the toilet or urinal and tried to wash their hands in the store. Truth is, many of them just come in, do their business and leave - no flush, no washing. Then there's those that do flush but don't wash.
I'm familiar with the discussion about over-washing. Many of those germs are actually good for you. But come on, what's worse than an unsanitary public restroom?
Not even some people with OCD dry their hands for that long.
Neither jam nor honey will spoil if kept pure. Yeah, if you double-dip the knife and get bread crumbs in there, those will go bad, but by themselves? There's so much sugar in there that any bacteria die of dehydration.
You really don't need to refrigerate a lot of things. Mayonnaise (really), mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, salsas... most condiments and toppings are perfectly safe if you don't contaminate them with bits of bread, chips, pasta, etc. Refrigeration slows oxidation and so preserves flavor, but as far as food safety is concerned, it's a non-issue. Just remember: unless you have squeeze bottles, serve from the primary container into a small ramekin, and then use that to dress your sandwich.
If I'm not about to prepare food, and if I don't suck my thumb, and if I have a normal immune system, what diff does it make?
I'd be happy if they would just wash them in the first place.
Seems like a lot of WHITE MEN are not washing their hands. I don't recall a black, asian men not washing their hands after crapping! Just white men.
I politely remind them... then not so politely. WASH YOUR HANDS MAN! NOBODY WANTS YOUR CRAP. I DON'T CARE HOW CAREFUL YOU WERE, THERE IS CRAP ON THEM. Seems like they're all liberals.
Dumbasses.
That wouldn't do it. I suspect the gp uses a "soap" that's got a lot of oil in it. A *lot*. I'm dubious about how clean such soaps get you. But if he's a compulsive hand washer that may be the best choice he has, and just by itself warm water helps a lot.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I would remind you that like me, CNN and Pelosi are Americans and are thus disgusting animal landwhales.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Yeah, Raleigh is a pretty nice city with some excellent, if inauthentic BBQ. But there are still enough Trump voters in the region to skew the averages way down.
Yes, that was my point, although California is not the only civilized part of the US. There's also New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, etc.
You are welcome on my lawn.
300 million people washing their hand 5 times a day 30 seconds (20 seconds with soap, 10 seconds to wash off the soap) = 1427 year of time wasted on hand washing every day. Per year 521 000 year are spent washing hands. If the 3 000 people that die from food poisoning every year expected life span was 80 years their deaths = 240 000 "wasted" year (not taking into account (a) that someone who is 40 years old when she dies only have 40 years left to live and, (b) people dying from food poisoning probably, in general, are old and weak, reducing the number of remaining years further).
In other words, washing your hands is a very inefficient way of spending your time if you want to use your limited time alive to do something meaningful.
I do hope that at some point the Western civilizations are properly toilet trained and understand that you can't clean your backside with paper. A very good experiment i read about some where. Rub your hands in nutella and try to wipe them off with a paper towel. Can you still smell nutella ? Water is the only solution . Indian civilizations had a very simple method of maintaining hygiene. Eat with your right hand wash your backside with your left hand. Don't mix the two....
Now that we have better soap if we continue to follow this philosophy its much easier to keep things clean.
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i'm a paleontologist by profession, and i can note that those who do indeed wash their hands "correctly" are almost ALL employed either in medicine or the sciences. The others (the 97%) don't feel the need. Who is right and who is wrong? i can't say, because i've also noticed, the human race is not exactly going extinct...