To think hygiene standards are low in Britain?

[castemary]

This obviously does not apply to everyone. But in Britain, I think there is a general acceptance of fairly low hygiene standards. I see it in several areas.
With individuals you have people telling everyone they do not wash bras for months, do not clean their teeth every day, do not wash face masks every day.
In public areas, offices and shops the cleaning often consist of no more than a quick hoover occasionally, a mop and a bit of damp wiping. Apart from toilets, places are rarely properly cleaned.
I think most people simply do not realise how unhygienic Britain is until they go to countries that do have a good standard of hygiene. There seems to be a lot of emphasis in Britain on superficial things that make places look good such as scatter cushions or make-up, and not on basic hygiene and cleanliness.
AIBU?

The thing with us is that we've always been fastidious with cleanliness and hand washing. Always.

This pandemic and the encouraging of good hygiene and in it being stepped up in all manner of ways is what we've always done cos we've always been like this.

You only have to go to a public toilet to see how dirty people are; so many walk straight out without so much as washing hands. It's grim.

YANBU op.

Food hygiene in restaurants fast food places etc is most definitely the worst in the UK! Other middle and Northern European countries are for stricter in adherence to the basic rules and above required. Where UK mostly goes with let’s with how little personal hygiene and food safety we can get away with.

@Blossomtoes

It’s a bit rude to go barefoot in somebody else’s house no matter how nice your feet are. You keep your socks on or accept a pair of slippers or keep a pair of socks in your handbag?

So it’s rude to keep your shoes on, it’s rude to go barefoot even on the hottest day, is there anything that isn’t rude? I’m not going to risk fracturing my hip by falling after skidding on a hard floor in socks nor am I wearing someone else’s slippers which may or may not be clean. Thank goodness I know absolutely nobody so precious.

In many cultures, including the ME, you'd just politely kick off your shoes & go barefoot so as not to track street dirt into someone's house.

Posh families will have slippers by the door - we aren't remotely posh but keep hotel slippers for this purpose - whereas everyone else will just go barefoot.

The general idea is that someone (either the householder or staff, depending on the demographic) will be mopping the floor on a daily basis, to get rid of dust, never mind verruca cooties.

My housekeeper is currently mopping the floor downstairs - she's wearing flip flops which she keeps here specifically for cleaning our house. Our previous lady (sadly, she died 6 months ago) worked barefoot.

Neither of them would have dreamt of wearing 'street shoes' in the house.

It's culturally unthinkable to tread your street shoe dirt into anyone's dwelling. Even if that dwelling is made of old carpets & cardboard, which was the case for a family I visited recently, you categorically wouldn't enter without removing your shoes.

"And the threads on here pre pandemic with many people justifying not washing their hands after going to the toilet.
Most people look neat and clean, but the reality is different."

End of tenancy cleaner here.... you are absolutely right, we've met some people who are so dolled up (immaculate hair, make up, fake nails, hair, eyelashes etc) zooming off in a very nice car and then you walk into their really disgustingly dirty house where they have lived for years, walked shoes all over the carpet, never scrubbed a stain and then expect the carpet to look as good as new after cleaning!! A clean house isn't valued and therefore isn't worth the expense of cleaner.

Re shops/ public places... cleaners are generally low paid and from my experience many are unreliable, can't drive and good cleaners are hard to find and in a public space the cleaning is hard work as the hours aren't enough to cover the demand of keeping the place clean, we've also experienced the same with domestic cleaning clients only want to pay for day 2 hours when it's a 5 hour clean and people would think bad cleaner!

Other people just don't see dirt and I'm frequently applauded by some people with the lack of hand washing after visiting public toilets!

@Coolandclamy

Lifespan does not equate to how healthy a person is.

err does it not ?

@NursePye I have OCD only in this country. I call it OCD if germs but I accept that’s my diagnosis but it is just plain old avoiding poor hygiene places and people.

From my experience and observations over the years I’ve been here in s that hygiene is not valued here. Just surface stuff, lip service. When you sit back and observe it’s very grim.

@chaosrabbitland that’s been explained a number of times up thread.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

The tolerance of flies in this country really shocks me. British people seem to have no issue with flies crawling on their food, getting on the kitchen surfaces etc.

Glad I don’t live where you live then. For me, European countries I’ve visited, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece and to a lesser extent, Germany are far worse at letting flies land on and crawl on food. In my part of the UK, I see care being taken to keep them off food.

Flies on food! Who tolerates that! Ive never met any brit who ignores flies. Washing hair every day, is not for some (me) if you have very curly hair it's not good or even possible (takes hours to wash, oil, stretch and dry. Cleaners don't get enough time to do the work expected 10min a room sometimes less and paid minimum wage. My friend cleans for a living, hard work not enough time or respect.

Having lived in Belgium and travelled in a lot of Europe, Britain doesn't seem any cleaner or dirtier than anywhere else
What I hope never to see again is sportsmen spitting on the pitch. Disgusting.

Anyone mentioned washing down walls?was mentioned on a similar thread and I feel guilty for never washing all my walls down regularly.

Cleaners deserve respect, those killing germs that stop you getting ill or even dying and people are so dismissive of them. My friend applied for a job at the local private school. Head walked her round and introduced her to a teacher, who held out her hand to shake but pulled it away when she realized she would be a cleaner. My friend was offered the job but turned it down. Cheeky stuck up bitch

Only time I really wash down walls, is when I'm decorating which i did today.

[quote Coolandclamy]@NursePye I have OCD only in this country. I call it OCD if germs but I accept that’s my diagnosis but it is just plain old avoiding poor hygiene places and people.

From my experience and observations over the years I’ve been here in s that hygiene is not valued here. Just surface stuff, lip service. When you sit back and observe it’s very grim.[/quote]
Heard everything now 🤣🤣🤣

Have you ever looked in a butchers shop in Spain? Flies all over the meat

How can you be OCD in this country, but not in another. You are either OCD or not.

@vodkaredbullgirl, that’s the point.

That's not the point, OCD doesn't just change in another country.

Saying you are OCD in this country and not your own is clearly nonsense and hugely disrespectful for true sufferers of OCD.

i cant say whether we are better or worse than other countries but i do think we are pretty gross and needing to be extra clean because of covid has proved several things....

Unhygienic people are still gross! They dont sanitise at all and the amount of people that still wont wash their hands after using a public loo is disgusting!

School cleaning must have been awful. Every year colds and vomiting virus sweep through the class like a storm. Nothing since covid. Clearly if things were cleaned better before and the kids cleaned their hands enough we would have to suffer the vomiting bug every year!

Personally public toilets are horrible. My local tesco always has unflushed poo in it. Or projectile poop over the whole bowl just left like a poop bomb went off. Often there is poop or blood smears on the walls where people of wiped their hands on it and as for the unisex ones - what do blokes do in there - hose the freaking place down!?!? Cant get to the loo with out standing in it, cant touch the seat because that is covered in it (even though they never put it down..) every time i am in there the other people come out the cubicle and go straight out the door without washing then slap their hands on the door, trolley, food items...yuk.

Spitting in the street is also disgusting and happening more.

Having worked in a supermarket.... you dont want to know what i have seen! But never ever use one of those self serve things - the amount of people who lick the serving utensils and then puts them back in the food is shocking!

Toilet brushes in the dishwasher for cleaning... who thinks up this crap!?! That is just... well i dont have the words for the wrongness of that.

We had months of every single show on tv showing the people of England how to wash their hands in the beginning of the pandemic. I mean that was extreme to say the least. I can’t believe that people didn’t know how to wash their hands.

They had these in every country in the world.

why do they touch food directly and then take money? In civilised places the functions are separated for hygiene reasons. And they touch food then money while wearing gloves because they are being so hygienic

That's illegal in the UK, which is why you have a separate person taking money or they remove gloves. If you see people doing it, they're breaking the law. We have excellent food hygeine inspection systems here.

Funny how there are certain countries around the world, well known for travellers getting food poisoning.
Also funny how the UK isn't one of those.

[quote Coolandclamy]@vodkaredbullgirl, that’s the point.[/quote]
That's not the point you fool. You sound ridiculous

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks Coolandclamy is talking shit.

Visit India. Then you’ll think that Britain is practically sterile in comparison. I loved India, and the people, such a great country - but what an eye opener.

@Ddot

Cleaners deserve respect, those killing germs that stop you getting ill or even dying and people are so dismissive of them. My friend applied for a job at the local private school. Head walked her round and introduced her to a teacher, who held out her hand to shake but pulled it away when she realized she would be a cleaner. My friend was offered the job but turned it down. Cheeky stuck up bitch

This. I used to be a cleaner in a hospital. I remember being on my knees, scrubbing the kickplate of a door... and hearing a lady tell her kid that "you need to do better at school, or you will end up doing that". At the time, I was working weekends and doing a degree in Biomedical Science. There were cleaners and HCAs that were in med school. And then the opposite, when I was cleaning the bed space around a patient in ITU, and I leapt out the way of a doctor... he moved and said "you first, your job is just as vital as mine".