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?

Where are you comparing this to OP? Because I've been to a lot of countries which are much, much, much worse.

I've noticed that there is a wide range of hygeine standards that people find acceptable. There are the hygeine zealots on MN, as evident on the many many posts covering hygeine habits, who cant deal with their DH or DC using the same bathroom as them, and need to wash bedding daily, on the opposite end of the spectrum there are the people who shower weekly or dont clean at all. In RL the vast majority of people will be somewhere in between.
I imagine the same is true in other countries.

After reading the mask wearing thread I must be a lot cleaner than first thought!

I’m not a clean freak - fairly clean and tidy! Personnel stuff Shower everyday brush teeth etc but don’t Hoover everyday (I have a eufy for downstairs though) bathrooms done once a week. Clean towels and bed sheets regularly. But I don’t go mad for bleaching and clean bed linen everyday lol

I do have a pack of wipes at work when I’m in to clean desk and keyboard....I’ve seen the cleaners use the same cloth for a floor and the kitchen ...that’s my limit!!

but clean mask is a must!! My daughter is suffering from awful chin acne and it’s getting better by ensuring she changes mask over the course of the day regularly. The material ones I struggled with so gone with the disposable one - not great for environment but breathing and a clean masks sadly wins :(

@youshallnotpass9

I think some people take a sentence as fact without thinking about it.

I told a friend I only have a bath once a week, which is true I do. She decided that was disgusting, without bothering to think that I have a shower and use that instead.

I haven't had a bath for about 15 years! I dread to think what some people would make of that!

I don't wash my mask every time I use it as most of the time it goes on for two minutes while I go in a shop and then comes off as soon as I come out.

@YellowScallion

In an office environment what would you expect a 'proper' clean to consist of. Our desks were wiped and floors hoovered daily. Once a month someone would come round and clean devices like keyboards etc. What other cleaning are you expecting?

My office didn't do any surface wiping. I did my own.

I think they counted disinfecting touch points as part of a deep clean that they would only do if there was a noro outbreak or something.

But I don't know what's normal. I think a lot of corporates have a tidy desk policy so cleaners can wipe down desks?

I am not a fanatic but I do think my office cleaning policy was crap, as per the place I worked before.

@HesterShaw1

What exactly is the point of a clean bra and an entirely clean set of clothes every single bloody day? What risks are being run by not doing this? Do people not think of where all those bloody cleaning products and detergents have gone and what damage their are doing once they have washed them into the drains?

exactly hester , im with you all the way on this one , some people are just really really obsessive , i backpacked around malaysia , when i was younger , some of these clean freaks would sadly never cope visiting a country any further afield than europe im sure lol . i had to use a tradional turkish public toilet in istanbul once , the hole in the ground type , even i was a bit awestrick at the horror of it ! i had to hold my breath it was that bad ,

They did make a point of cleaning door handles and other surfaces back when I was last in the office, pre-pandemic. I suspect cleaning regimes in quite a few workplaces suffer because people don't want to spend out on it, and it's seen as low-skilled, and is usually minimum wage.

I have a Dutch colleague who was at the point where I was ready to march him to the shower and insist on a clean t-shirt, but I put that down to him living alone and being a typical techy more than Dutch. Other Dutch colleagues are quite safe to let out in public.

I'm relieved my DC was old enough when Covid struck to have appreciated the delights of soft play, shopping trollies, restaurant high chairs and eating discarded crisps off cafe floors. I do wonder how the little ones who weren't crawling when the first lockdown began and who haven't been taken shopping or exposed to much in the way of germs will manage to develop their immune systems.

Carpeted pubs really surprised me when I moved to the UK and people able to take a seat to eat/drink at a sticky table. (I still can’t do that). Other than that I’ve not noticed any big differences.

I'm sure there are others who have travelled more than me, but I've spent quite a bit of time travelling in various continents. I wouldn't have said the UK was particularly unhygienic in comparison.

@RadicalFern You are. Sorry but unwashed meat/chicken is just gross. How can you just stick a whole chicken in the oven or the pan, chuck in some spices and think 'job done'. Cannot imagine!

[quote VladmirsPoutine]@RadicalFern You are. Sorry but unwashed meat/chicken is just gross. How can you just stick a whole chicken in the oven or the pan, chuck in some spices and think 'job done'. Cannot imagine![/quote]
I don't cook meat (I'm not vegetarian as such, but I don't eat it at home, only when I go out), but I was under the impression that it wasn't recommended to wash chicken before cooking?

Hospitals are still pretty grim places. There's usually a disinterested cleaner randomly spreading muck around the floor with a damp mop, and only very occasionally putting it back in the mop bucket to squeeze out, then repeating. Toilets can be pretty disgusting, obviously not cleaned daily as some have overflowing bins and "matter" in the loos even first thing in the morning (not to mention lack of soap and some don't even have hot water).

@VladmirsPoutine you're wrong. Scroll down this page for the correct advice. Food production standards in the UK are quite strict. The cooking is key - if you like raw meat it might be different.

Washing your clothes every day isn't good for them. I wear the same pair of jeans all week unless I spill something on them. I change my top every other day, again unless I spill something.

I usually change my running things every time I run, but not always (and during covid people shouldn't be getting close enough to smell anything! )

I wash bed linen once a week or sometimes 10 days/fortnight.

Why would you wash a chicken? Don't you think 90 odd minutes in the oven will kill any germs that might have got onto it (somehow, through the plastic it's wrapped in).

@user1497207191

Hospitals are still pretty grim places. There's usually a disinterested cleaner randomly spreading muck around the floor with a damp mop, and only very occasionally putting it back in the mop bucket to squeeze out, then repeating. Toilets can be pretty disgusting, obviously not cleaned daily as some have overflowing bins and "matter" in the loos even first thing in the morning (not to mention lack of soap and some don't even have hot water).

The cleaner doesn't get paid enough and has too much work to do to give a fuck. Hospitals are too overcrowded to clean properly, that's the issue. As soon as one person leaves the bed, the next is in it.

AMillionMilesAway you are correct. Washing meat is more dangerous in terms of the spread of disease than not washing it. Cooking meat thoroughly destroys any bacteria that may be present.

I was visiting a relative and caught a nasty bug from a hospital loo ( pre covid) I tried to go into the least filthy one I could find as well and washed my hands well.
I guess that cleaners are not seen as important.

@FrenchBoule The stuff about washing/skin issues is absolute nonsense. My eldest daughter has eczema and the dermatologist said bathing daily for no more than5 mins was essential as bacteria breeds in skin with eczema more easily. She's so much better since we followed the derm's washing and moisturising regime

[quote VladmirsPoutine]@RadicalFern You are. Sorry but unwashed meat/chicken is just gross. How can you just stick a whole chicken in the oven or the pan, chuck in some spices and think 'job done'. Cannot imagine![/quote]
iv never washed a chicken and im still alive , christ almighty the bloody heat and cooking time does the job !

I know what the recommendations are. But it's also filthy. And the same people who will be banging on about 'The Regulations about food safety' will also happily let their cats sit on kitchen table tops and kiss their dogs, and think nothing of not showering if they didn't 'feel dirty'.

I've seen the advice about washing meat on MN before, it's really not hygienic. I guess, if you use bleach to do it, the Brits havr won being the most hygienic war .

What I don’t get about chicken washing is, we’ve all been told how important it is with hand washing to use soap or handwash and take plenty of time to lather properly. And yet people who insist chicken washing is essential just run it under a tap and don’t use soap at all!

Humans are not supposed to live in a ultra sanitised world