to be revolted by this?

[Goldmandra]

99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did.

Why is it so difficult to use a bit of soap and water for the sake of keeping poo
out of our food?

Ugh!

I'm with Madge and Celtic. The fact that people have oral sex in which they stick their faces in each others' nethers and don't tend to get sick from it makes me think that the risk from not handwashing is a bit overblown.

Exactly pink - exactly! So there knob-gobblers - that's you told!

it's not the piss vapour that bothers me, it's the worm eggs...........

Handwashers are less likely to suck cock. I bet that's true.

Madge, how would you know whether there was faecal matter on the flush handle?

madge and whoever else, why would you not?? what exactly would you lose by just spending 1 min to wash your hands? i don't get it

"And how do you flush the loo? With your foot?!" Elbow MrsKeith, I reckoned since the cough into your elbow thing helped prevent germs spreading with coughs and colds it would be just as hard for germs to go from me to someone else as I tend not to touch others with my elbow.

There may be a PhD topic in that, Shatners! The research would certainly be lively.

Re. why would you not - I do, often, but sometimes I just can't be arsed. We go to the bog A LOT in our lives. It's boring. I want to get it over with and back to more interesting things. From the stats the OP quoted, I am not alone in this.

If I can't wash my hands after the loo I feel weird and anxious, don't like it all - I always wash if I have a chance and I do look at women who come out the loos and don't wash and think yuck. Was walking by a restaurant and one of the chiefs/ kitchen workers never washed his hands when he came out of the loo which was manly anyway. Nearly puked. Not that precious or OCD about other stuff though.

Far grimmer things go on in kitchens than staff not washing their hands. You just can't think of such things or you'd go nuts. You'd be better off thinking how far we've come in a very short time from the streets being awash with human and animal excrement!

thats all well and good but if you touch the door handle going out you can be guaranteed it was pointless washing your hands at these service stations.

Over the years I have been a childminder I have cared for quite a number of children who habitually miss hand washing.

I find that I need to send them back repeatedly to wash their hands at first. It is clear with many of them that they simply are not expected to do this at home. I am a bit to say that my sisters children come into this group.

I guess these are the children who grow up into adults who think they don't need to bother and will be the ones who cause the food poisoning outbreaks we see on the news as well as lots of minor cases which just make family and friends ill.

I'd be interested to know if other countries are better at basic hygiene or if every nation is similarly disgusting.

I'm with Madge.

Was walking by a restaurant and one of the chiefs/ kitchen workers never washed his hands when he came out of the loo which was manly anyway. Nearly puked. Not that precious or OCD about other stuff though.

But commercial kitchens have to have a hand wash basin installed within - which must be used when entering kitchen to work. Chefs will use this instead of sink in loo.

Also just wondering how 'walking by a restaurant' gave you such a good insight into the toilet habits of its chefs Begonia?

This reminds me of a very interesting conversation I had with a Dr who works high up in public health and research. Essentially he argued that hand washing after bathroom visits was great as a social reminder to wash hands occasionally but that there was no statistical need to wash just because you had gone to the loo.

I know he won me over with the argument at the time but right now any remember the specifics am a moron

"they'll be the ones who cause food poisoning outbreaks"??? er no, that'll be the hotels and chefs who don;t cook food properly or leave it out on plate warmers for too long. I'm with the other vile disgusting ones I'm afraid - as a competent adult I can use the loo, even for a poo, without getting anything on my hands. I can barely remember the last time I had a stomach bug and that was from badly reheated food. The hysteria around this is astonishing to me.

I wouldn't let my dh down on me if I hadn't very recently had bath. I may be over the top but I did have gastroenteritis when I was 9 & I have never been the same since (bowel wise)

I really don't care if other people have poo on their fingers. I really wouldn't like to feel I'm being monitored and turned into a statistic if I didn't wash for a good reason (listed above, no towels, drier, soap, warm water etc).,

I don't tend to piss on my hands when weeing either, I tend to use handgel once I've escaped the toilets all together, because of general public germs.

I'm not dead.

That's my thinking, washing your hands after the loo means you're washing your hands on a semi regular basis throughout the day.

Those fucking vile none washers - when the fuck do you washyour games?

Hands! Not games!

YANBU

This paragraph says it all- from the bbc article I presume the OP got those handwashing stats from
The UN says washing hands is the most cost-effective intervention for the worldwide control of disease. It estimates hand washing could save more than a million lives a year from diarrhoeal diseases and prevent respiratory infections, one of the biggest causes of child mortality in developing countries

We are lucky in this country to have good medical care, clean water and a hygienic standard of living with sewage removal etc, so many people overlook the basics. There is a lot of ignorance shown in some of the comments. Just because the flush isn't smeared with faeces doesn't mean it's not covered in millions of bacteria. You should wash your hands adequately after using the toilet to remove the millions of bacteria on your hands, rather than selfishly adding to the number on the toilet door. You won't pick up the same amount of bacteria from touching the toilet door and you can always use some alcogel as well after leaving the toilets anyway. It's this selfish 'why should I bother if other people don't' attitude that causes problems.

The numbers of people who don't wash their hands is shocking. Yet I'm sure the majority of these would all be showing righteous indignation if god forbid they picked up a hospital aquired infection or got food poisoning in a restaurant. Just no sense of responsibility themselves.

I don't like to touch the taps cos they will not be clean. If you do wash your hands (and talking about shitty service stations toilets) you then have to touch the bloody filthy door handles which will have all the non washers germs on it.

Soooooooooo, my solution is the hand gel. Always keep it in my bag and throughly slather it on once I am outside the toilets.
I am sure I am not alone.

Was once employed in a workplace where colleagues felt it was acceptable to fill up the kettle from the toilet sink (20+ employees used toilet).

No tea for me, thanks

I mean your hands stink when you've done a fucking shit FGS!

Er...there is normally the option of loo roll you know. You don't have to use your bare hands.