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?

@VladmirsPoutine

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'.

been kissing my cats and rabbits for the last how many years and hey im still here , i havent caught a deadly disease yet and no i dont shower every single day because im not living in a tropical country with sweat pouring off me whilst slaving in a coal mine , , so just out of interest , are we supposed to be using radox whilst washing the chicken before cooking ? www.mumsnet.com/emo/te/2.gif.pagespeed.ce.pqlGYGVWqX.gif

@TheVanguardSix

Shoes in the house... that's a thing that gets me here. Why do people (including DH who comes from here) wear shoes in the house?

Brought up to do so by an extremely house proud mother. When I was a child nobody took their shoes off inside. I haven’t done it for 67 years and I’m not starting now.

I am comparing to wealthy South Asian countries, the German part of Switzerland, Iceland.
Of course, standards are better than in countries like Bangladesh. Britain is the sixth wealthiest country in the world. I would expect it to be better than a country where many of the population are in dire poverty and living in slums.
I accept that serious harm from uncleanliness is not common in Britain. A bit of food poisoning, but fairly low levels, and nothing dangerous like cholera.
But that highlights much of the British attitude of if it doesn't harm you, why do I have to bother cleaning?
The lack of cleaners to do anything beyond basic cleaning in public spaces, offices and shops just shows how little clean places are valued. It is not about private versus public, it is simply about someone being prepared to pay for it.
Re. hot desking, yes in theory cleaners are supposed to clean desks regularly. In some places they may do so. But I have always got to work very early and everywhere I have worked there are not enough cleaners, so they only do what looks visibly dirty.

We don't have two inch cockroaches all over the place so for that reason alone I think Britain is pretty clean.

chaosrabbitland your post reminds me of when I was a kid and would share my ice cream with the family dog- lick for him, lick for me...
I'm still alive!

So I see a friend who thinks she is incredibly houseproud let her cats walk all over her kitchen surfaces. It is disgusting. Animals should be on the floor, if they are allowed inside at all.

I agree that Britain was filthy dirty with shocking hygiene standards in public places until the pandemic. The difference between trains now and trains 18 months ago is notable. I know fewer passengers means less dirt but I do see more evidence of places being cleaned these days.

The people at the top of public transport/public loos/shopping malls etc want to pay out as little as possible in maintenance. Greed for keeping the money at the top of an organisation and not letting it filter down to higher employment and better facilities has become the new norm and it results in a squalid, downtrodden nation.

But that highlights much of the British attitude of if it doesn't harm you, why do I have to bother cleaning?

Yes it's nice to have cleanliness. But you haven't answered this have you?

I accept that serious harm from uncleanliness is not common in Britain... But that highlights much of the British attitude of if it doesn't harm you, why do I have to bother cleaning?

Well... yes

If our approach to cleaning doesn’t do anyone any harm, what exactly is the problem?

Well I do think the pandemic did highlight some issues. .
In the week before lockdown 1, my dh commented that for the first time ever there were queues in the gents toilet. 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!
I have been blessed by not having a days illness since lockdown 1, not a cough, cold or anything despite working in an office til January. Just the basics of washing my hands every hour., anti bac everywhere etc has made a real difference I think. Not so convinced on the face mask front tbh but who knows?
But I dont think standards are lower here than our European friends tbh.

I always thought it was the French who had poor hygiene standards, not the Brits!!

Wasn't there another thread recently about what terrible filthy mingers we all are? I'm starting to resent it.

I'd agree that public spaces in Britain could take some work, and the level of littering is massive, but, no I don't think that we're filthy, on the whole. Being too clean is actually bad for you (a bit of muck keeps your immune system happy) and bad for the environment (wasting hot water, blasting everything with bleach). We're not in the tropics like Singapore, so the chance of a lonesome bacteria on the kitchen worktop taking off and killing us is much lower.

I work in a school and the grubby families really stand out. The vast majority of children (95%+) are clean, neat, and scrubbed, and when you bend in to help with their maths, they smell of soap or shampoo or laundry powder, not dirty human.

Although tbf I guess the fscemask has stopped me touching my face as much

I couldn't get worked up about this, each to their own and all that. My question would be "So what?", what are the consequences of not cleaning everything all the time? Do people suffer from bacterial infections more in the UK because we're all so very skanky? Or is it just distasteful to people from cleaner countries?

@castemary

So I see a friend who thinks she is incredibly houseproud let her cats walk all over her kitchen surfaces. It is disgusting. Animals should be on the floor, if they are allowed inside at all.

Depends on whether she cleans the surface before putting food on it.

It is always good to assume that your cat will have walked on it rather than assume you have trained it not to

But that highlights much of the British attitude of if it doesn't harm you, why do I have to bother cleaning?

Yup, I think that sums up my (British) atitude. Why do you see this as a problem, OP? It all seems tickety boo to me.

@AMillionMilesAway

chaosrabbitland your post reminds me of when I was a kid and would share my ice cream with the family dog- lick for him, lick for me... I'm still alive!

ha ha , sometimes still if i am having a roast dinner one of the cats will sit on the other side of the plate and start eating , i am so damn soft with him i cannot bring myself to stop him , oh the horror of it all lol

It’s not good for the immune system to live in a super-sanitised environment, we need some bugs in order to provoke immune reactions... Certainly no one I know goes days without brushing their teeth! But some of your other examples are OTT.

Now I’m off to rub my not-washed-for-months bra all over the plates and cutlery

Animals should be on the floor, if they are allowed inside at all.
I can think of many, many countries - some cleaner than the Brits, some grubbier - where animals are allowed into the house. Letting animals indoors isn't a sign of filth or moral depravity.

Good for DC's immune systems, too.

I didn't think so until I moved abroad, now I do but only for a few things as on the whole most people are hygienic. Now I live in country where they are obsessed with cleaning and unfortunately (and incorrectly) the stereotype Brit is thought of as someone with bad teeth who eats badly and isn't very clean ( based on carpets in bathrooms) and people sitting on publish toilet seats!

Mostly I've noticed it around clothes and eating. We use a tablecloth (or placemats) and napkins for every meal, in the UK it never occured to me to do this, but in my adopted county it is unheard of and it feels strange not to clean your mouth during eating. Same goes for toothpicks, I can' t recall ever seeing then on tables in the UK, but instead people using their finger to pick out food that's stuck in their teeth! Eating sandwiches, burgers etc, everyone here wraps a napkin around them and never touches the food with their hands.

Washing dishes, I used to leave the soap on them, my MIL watched me in horror the very first time I washed dishes and didn't rinse them! I also noticed everyone here rinses them before putting them in the dishwasher, which I think is not recommended.

I've learned ( but not necessarily agree with everything) that clothes that have been worn even once like jeans should never folded and put back in the wardrobe/drawer with clean clothes. Men should always wear a t-shirt under shirts ( and this is a hot country!) You should never sit in or on your bed in clothes that you've worn outside (fear of contamination!) and shoes should never be worn in the house. The sink cooker and bathroom should be cleaned daily ( sod that I work 10 hours days and really don't have time) and hair should never be dried anywhere except the bathroom (we have plugs in our bathrooms as it's where we have our washing machines). Children should always be clean and if any food is on them, clothes must be changed and photo should never put of social media of children with food around their mouths!! You should shower before entering a public pools and swimming hats are law even with a shaved head. I don't think I ever saw colleagues in the UK lining up outside the bathroom after lunch to clear their teeth either. oh and the lack of bidets in the UK is a whole other conversation.

I could go on, but I think where I live some things are a bit extreme too!

Oh masks are mandatory outdoors where I live, so I use a new disposable one every day.

I was complaining to an Italian friend , because my British husband doesn’t shower every day .. I find this really unhygienic/off-putting .
She admitted that she only washes in bits ,
No daily shower . So a wipe down of certain areas with a towel!! This a very well put together woman btw , you would have no idea..

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!

You think that running a chicken under the tap gets rid of more germs than cooking the said meat at 180ish degrees?

In the week before lockdown 1, my dh commented that for the first time ever there were queues in the gents toilet. 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!

More likely to be because they’d taped off all the urinals as they didn’t allow for social distancing.

(I’m in denial about men not washing their hands after weeing).

you would have no idea. So if you would have no idea, what's actually the problem? She's not dropping dead or getting ill from hideous not-showering-every-day diseases, nor is she offending your nostrils.

@Kisskiss

I was complaining to an Italian friend , because my British husband doesn’t shower every day .. I find this really unhygienic/off-putting . She admitted that she only washes in bits , No daily shower . So a wipe down of certain areas with a towel!! This a very well put together woman btw , you would have no idea..

Does your husband or friend smell?

If so, you have a point.

If not, surely their approach is fine?