To think that not washing your hands after using the toilet and before preparing food is selfish

[Lisabel]

Basically just that- avoiding washing your hands after using the toilet means allowing your hands to be contaminated with faecal bacteria and sometimes viral particles (e.g. Norovirus). Even if you're only peeing you're touching the flush, the door handle, the door lock etc. which invariably have other people's faecal bacteria on them and sometimes viruses like Norovirus or Rotavirus. You will then be touching things that other people have to handle such as computers, trolleys, cash, check-out desks etc. so other people have no choice but to get those germs on their hands too. Some of those people will be vulnerable, immunosuppressed or young children who could become severely unwell with a simple infection.

By avoiding washing your hands before preparing food you are spreading whatever is on them (so faecal bacteria from the toilet, or other people's faecal bacteria from the shopping trolley or the self check-out or the door handles at work or train buttons etc.) onto your food and onto the food of the people you are cooking for!

Please be considerate and wash your hands for 20 seconds in these situations. If everyone did it then it would massively cut down rates of norovirus and rotavirus and of bacterial food poisoning.

Even before I was immunosuppressed I thought this was disgusting behaviour.
Now it really scares me.

www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-issues-a-reminder-of-the-importance-of-handwashing-on-global-handwashing-day

The actual day may have been and gone, but it's a good reminder nonetheless.....

It’s gross and very selfish!

YANBU. I really can't understand why anyone wouldn't wash their hands. It's disgusting and inconsiderate.

If you don't wash your hand after the loo or before preparing food then you probably don't wash them at all so yes probably very unhygienic.

Agree this is so gross.
But in your scenario I couldn’t avoid getting dirty hands as I wash my hands before I unlock and open the door.
(I always wash my hands before prepping food though.)

It's unacceptable actually.

If you don't wash your hand after the loo or before preparing food then you probably don't wash them at all so yes probably very unhygienic

That's not the case for me.

I struggle massively with a skin condition which is exacerbated by handwashing - especially in winter.

Places I wash my hands: -

*always in public loos
*always before prepping food
*after a poo/changing san pro

I don't always wash my hands after a wee. By doing this I can just about manage the eczema.

Hi Mango,

Yes that's true but I guess if everyone washed their hands then the loo door wouldn't be dirty anyway!

It's gross. I have a colleague who doesn't wash her hands after the loo (I have been there, heard her pee and see her walk past the sinks and out of the toilets). She is forever bringing homebaked stuff to work and offering to share her lunch. No I won't have any you manky mare.

It's disgusting.

Always wash my hands before preparing food, but I used to work in catering many years ago, so it's instinctive/a habit (first thing you do before starting work + after a break + several times per day eg after handling raw food). (Pretty sure I did so before working in catering too but it was a long time ago.)

What surprises me is the amount of people I see who don't wash their hands before preparing or handling food for others to eat - gross, who knows where their hands have been. (I don't mean in professional kitchens I mean just in everyday life).

Once shared a flat with someone who never washed their hands after using the toilet (my bedroom was right next to the toilet so you can generally tell). He worked as a waiter at a restaurant - made me think of all the plates he would handle daily -when serving customers - eurgh! Maybe he washed his hands at work, but I think if you do that you would do it at home too?

I think it depends. You should always wash after going to the toilet.

This weekend we were given another roadkill deer. DH was butchering it and went straight from processing meat to cooking it. Didn’t bother me

I've been in public loos and have made children wash their hands.

They tend to come out of the toilet cubicle and look confused because their parent/guardian isn't there so I just say to them something like "Oh you want help washing your hands", then help them.

I only realised I was making them wash their hands when I went to a restaurant and a daughter then mother went to toilet, and neither washed their hands afterwards.

Thanks for messages- glad some other people agree.

I wish that the people that really need to wash their hands would do so but I guess this thread is never going to appeal to them. There's also an inverse snobbery about being dirty and an attitude that it doesn't matter whether it affects other people or a lack of understanding of how contagious disease is spread. Oh well!