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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be outraged when ladies don't wash their hands after the toilet?

212 replies

Onedayinthesun · 22/06/2015 15:06

It happens all the time, at work, at the gym, in restaurants, shopping centres......

Why do so many ladies use the loo then just flounce out of the toilet and give the sink a complete swerve?

Off they go back out into the world spreading their toilet germs from their hands onto unsuspecting people, it makes me so mad ð??¡

I just don't get it, what is it about soap and water that some of the population want to avoid after doing their business?? AIBU to get so angry about this?

OP posts:
Candycoco · 22/06/2015 18:13

That is simply not true Sunny. People who have cancer or other chronic illnesses may be deemed to have a compromised immune system. And that doesn't mean they would be in hospital the whole time and never going into public toilets.

Clearly people on here trying to justify their filthy habits are so considerate they don't care about others.

Would you wash your hands in a hospital toilet?

Candycoco · 22/06/2015 18:14

*inconsiderate

SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker · 22/06/2015 18:14

There are different levels of compromised immune systems. I had to take a drug at one point (thankfully short period of time) that lowered my resistance to immune challenges but didn't kill it completely.

I did avoid public places like school and supermarkets on the advice of my doctor though so I probably would have tried to avoid using a public loo but you never know if you are going to be caught really short and have little choice.

poorbuthappy · 22/06/2015 18:25

Honeydragon GrinGrinGrinGrin

SleeplessButNotInSeattle · 22/06/2015 18:25

I always wash my hands out of habit more than anything. But don't really take any notice of what others do.

Motherinlawsdung · 22/06/2015 18:34

YANBU OP, I cannot believe the attitude of people on here who don't wash their hands after visiting the loo, and by that I mean any loo, including those in your own and friends' houses, as well as public ones. Dirty people.

Candycoco · 22/06/2015 18:38

I can't believe how openly blasé people are about what dirty bastards they are. Gross.

ivykaty44 · 22/06/2015 18:38

I wash my hands after I have been to the looo, as long as there is a drying method, otherwise I use gel.

OutsSelf · 22/06/2015 18:42

Aren't air driers just shit circulators? I've had sucky teeth for not drying my hands but I'm not sticking my hands underneath a warm air current passed through a filter covered in shit

VivaLeBeaver · 22/06/2015 18:46

Yes I try to avoid the hand dryers. As a student midwife our infection control person told us never to use them as they warm up the remaining bacteria on your hands (and there will be some) and make them multiply at a rate of knots.

Momagain1 · 22/06/2015 18:49

i am with you OP. Excepting those who use wipes or gel later, for skincare reasons, I am quite surprised at the number of people who seem to have missed, or misunderstood, everything anyone ever tried to teach them about sanitation. Someone even says she takes care to wash when people are sick at home, but not the rest of the time. FFS, how do you think you get sickness that gives you V and/or D symptoms? No, it wasnt food contamination by the restaurant, it was your own dirty hands used to hold your sandwich, or adjust the lid of your coffee cup or stick a straw into your kids juice box.

Wash your hands after the loo, because even if you dont get pee or poo on you, your crotch area and the bathroom itself, even the one in your house, are covered with germs. Wash your hands before handling food, because who knows what was on the door handle of the resteraunt, the handrail at the train station etc. not being visibly dirty isnt the same as being clean enough to go anywhere your mouth or your food.

I agree if you start really thinking about it, you can turn into a crazy person, but after after the loo and before eating Is BASIC and minimal. It's what you teach children. its what you expect of food and healthcare workers. It isnt a matter of a trying to reach an impossibly germ free state, its a numbers game. Bacteria multiply exponentially and you have no idea what you might have been exposed to. A wash every few hours and at points where contamination is likely reduces your chances. A small exposure can become a big enough exposure pretty quickly if you make it easy. You might have to skip it or do a bad job if facilities are lacking, but even a bad job disrupts the cycle. Except maybe the 3 Second Swish Method.

Micah, as a general rule, oral sex is a no unless he has showered. He walks and runs everywhere, and unless he has recently showered, the accumulated sweat is of no interest to me. There have been exceptions. Again, its a numbers game. Even the most OCD person will be exposed eventually, but that's not a justification for not trying to limit exposure.

NewFlipFlops · 22/06/2015 18:51

YANBU OP.

coffeetasteslikeshit · 22/06/2015 18:51

I surprised some of you unclench for long enough to even take a shit Grin

coffeetasteslikeshit · 22/06/2015 18:52

*I'm

The5DayChicken · 22/06/2015 18:52

It doesn't come naturally to me to wash my hands...I have to actively think about it but I do do it. Same for teeth brushing. It just wasn't drummed into me as a child and it's extremely difficult to turn it into habit in later life. So though I'm a hand washer, I can't bring myself to judge those who don't.

Those of you saying the gels aren't as effective as hand washing, can you link something that says why? I would have thought an antibacterial sanitizer gel would do the same as a soap (containing an antibacterial agent and a sanitizer) providing it was used as per the instructions.

Also, like some other posters, very curious about this idea that bacteria can leap through loo roll and onto your hands in an instant.

CactusAnnie · 22/06/2015 18:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CactusAnnie · 22/06/2015 18:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/06/2015 18:57

no offence to your poor MIL cactus but if she is going to work, using public transport, a couple of dirty feckers not washing their hands is possibly the least of her problems.

MrsSchadenfreude · 22/06/2015 19:01

French women never seem to wash their hands after using the loo. Perhaps their shit comes out in neat beribboned packages, smelling of Chanel No. 5? Grin

The5DayChicken · 22/06/2015 19:05

That's an interesting article Cactus (genuinely...I learned quite a bit from it Smile ) but at no point does it say that antibacterial sanitizer gels aren't as effective as hand washing. It even says:

"One [option] is a non-antibiotic hand sanitizer, like Purell, which don't contain any triclosan and simply kill both bacteria and viruses with good old-fashioned alcohol. Because the effectiveness of hand-washing depends on how long you wash for, a quick squirt of sanitizer might be more effective when time is limited."

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/06/2015 19:09

French women don't shit mrsshadenfreude

CactusAnnie · 22/06/2015 19:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Onedayinthesun · 22/06/2015 19:11

Thank you Moma well said

OP posts:
ifgrandmahadawilly · 22/06/2015 19:12

I rarely bother washing my hands after a wee. I just can't bring myself to get worked up about it. I'm not touching my wee and even if I did get some wee on my hands, what can you catch from wee?

Plus I wee like 25 time a day.

I always wash after a poo though.

Onedayinthesun · 22/06/2015 19:13

Dirty Bastards is right Candy Grin

OP posts: