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?

"I tell you what is gross in this country: fitted carpets. Go to any other European country and they have bare floors, that can be washed. Carpets are minging."

They do keep dust a lot more. However, I've noticed that carpet cleaning is much more common now than when I was a child.

OP I'm still waiting for your post specifying which countries are cleaner?

I've lived abroad (specifically France and Spain) and they are FILTHY. Paris has dog shit everywhere and everywhere stinks of piss. And the only time I've seen rats is when I was in Spain - quite an achievement given I live in London!

@Spectrumofhumanlife

I forgot to mention the lovely habit of blowing into a handkerchief stuffing up their sleeves or into their pockets. Then put it comes again, they open it out, sometimes shake it, proceed to use it again and that can be repeated many times. The same snorted into areas being turned inside out and all around

I mean... are you living in the 1920’s or something? Having lived in 7 different counties in the U.K, I have never seen anyone use a handkerchief.

I've seen LOADS of people use handkerchiefs, but they are mainly older people and it's definitely a dying habit. They used to be boil washed, but I presume are not any more.

Having said that, the practice of re-using a tissue is common. To be fair, we are not always next to a bin so they have to be kept somewhere until we come by a bin.

@Ddot

I have a friend who works for NHS, ambulances are disinfected and cleaned alot now due to covid. Before covid if you wanted to catch something grim, get an ambulance. Bloody rank, let's hope cleaning carries on after pandemic is gone.

I suspect that's more a function of the fact there is a severe shortage of ambulances and crew, exacerbated by overwhelmed A&E departments, and they have to turn them around in no time at all, rather than a function of the crews can't be bothered.

Anyone who's ever had to wait for an ambulance can tell you how pressured they are. Personally I'd rather take my chances in a 'bloody rank' ambulance which turns up quickly rather than waiting two hours for one to be properly cleaned down whilst I bled out on the road.

Ideally I'd like a properly funded NHS and clean ambulances that turn up quickly, but that's probably a pipe dream...

"I thought the point was more that antibacterial wipes are not anti-viral, and the pandemic is about a virus."

Most antibacterial wipes ARE also anti-viral though so that would not be a good point.

Lockheart
Yes your right it certainly is not the paramedics fault at all, it's an emergency service not a taxi!

"I go to swimming pools and am disgusted at how dirty changing rooms are."

If these are council ones, it will be to do with people not wanting to pay higher prices or more council tax. It's true that some public services aren't well funded.

@PermanentTemporary

Im aware that Brits have a reputation. We were in a static caravan owned by Belgians on our honeymoon. I was told they'd never rented it to Brits before because of the cleanliness issue. I spent the last day of our honeymoon scrubbing the entire caravan within an inch of its life, as national pride was at stake.

Im interested to hear that every country has areas which they consider important to clean and others less so.

I live in Belgium and it's no cleaner here. Plumbing isn't any better either.

"I’ve travelled an awful lot and the only places I’ve been with higher hygiene than the UK are the wealthy southeast Asian countries - Japan, South Korea, Singapore. "

Korea? Really? I found it pretty dirty in 2003. Not the smart buildings, but the city itself.

@VladmirsPoutine

Unhygienic compared to where?

Literally everywhere else across the world.

Come on now, that's not true.

"Often there isn't soap in the toilets of restaurants in Belgium and we experienced - and knew lots of people who experienced - food poisoning relatively often!"

That's a problem in public toilets in the UK as well though. And a lack of hot water.

"Going to Spain and Portugal I would always marvel that the loos didn’t stink of urine."

The streets in Spain though and the cafes where they just chuck their rubbish on the floor?

"Confirming what he had always said, that the no queues in the gents was down to the fact that 70 per cent of men dont wash their hands!"

It's obviously because there are urinals as well as toilets.

"some wear clothes more than once before washing them."

More than once ha ha ha. Totally immoral to wash all your clothes after one wear.

"(you couldn't buy proper deodorant in France when I first went there"

Same when I first went there. There were deodorants, but they weren't anti-perspirant so didn't work properly.

I’m on the side of bacteria and worry about the constant cleaning and our future children having immunity issues! I let my dd play in mud ect, we have a dog ect I think it’s so important to have a strong immune system. Touch wood my dd is rarely poorly.
Agreed, I try to avoid harsh chemicals, our family are also rarely ill. The constant use of chemicals in the air and on food surfaces is often worse than a bit of bacteria.

"I think my colleagues thought my cleaning of the switches and door knobs was a bit over-the-top, until Covid came along and then they all started doing the same!"

Until you found out it's not really transmitted via surfaces so now it's over the top again!

@tttigress

Haven't been swimming in the UK for a while, but when I did I didn't see people taking a shower before swimming.

Pretty gross.

Makes no difference because they'll be swimming in chlorine.

@mainsfed

My French teacher in secondary school told us the French think the British are dirty because we don’t have bidets!

French people don't use bidets any more. If they have them, they might use them to handwash clothes or something.

I agree with you OP, especially about pre-pandemic hand washing and swimming pool changing rooms. It’s interesting to hear of behaviour in other countries as I’ve suspected this for a while.

Makes no difference because they'll be swimming in chlorine.

Of course it makes a difference!

How clean do you need? I had a friend once who was constantly using hand gel on herself and her kids, who wanted me to disinfect the toddler loo seat at her house before her child used it, a total germ freak. Her kids were always ill, they caught everything going. She stopped going places convinced they made her children ill.

Bizarrely, she was the most uncaring person round ill children!

Anyway, I'm not so fastidious and we are a healthy household. Go figure.

@Sometimesonly

Makes no difference because they'll be swimming in chlorine.

Of course it makes a difference!

Explain then.

Surely it's obvious? Unless you see the swimming pool as a huge bath, it is just good sense to wash off any sweat, dirty, body lotions etc before you get in. Yes, the chlorine will help "neutralise" any dirt but it will still be there - and the water in swimming pools is not changed frequently, only filtered. It's much more considerate to quickly shower before swimming.

@Sometimesonly

Makes no difference because they'll be swimming in chlorine.

Of course it makes a difference!

it does make a difference. for example creams and lotions and make up and hair products leave a film on top of the water unless you wash them off before swimming. that's pretty gross imo.