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've travelled a lot and have lived abroad.

Paris comes to mind as one of the stinkiest, crummiest places I've been to.

My office cleaner and his team are amazing, they work really, really hard and keep the place immaculate. And we also get a regular tech deep clean.

An obsession with hygiene is a bit unhealthy imho.

"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."

What would 'properly cleaned' consist of?

@castemary

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.

Which wealthy SE Asian countries have better hygiene?

Which are wealth SE Asian countries?

Singapore? You wouldn't say that if you were a migrant worker living in squalor in a dormitory

Where else?

There's a balance to be struck. I think hand hygiene was dismal pre-pandemic and public transport was objectively filthy. The recent emphasis on soap and water IMO is a really good thing. I think a lot of people use bleach/dettol as a substitute for elbow grease, or because they simply don't know that you need to scrub/agitate something to get it clean and think pouring caustic chemicals over it is enough. Same goes with bathing - marinating in the water doesn't actually get you clean, you have to wash with soap and a wash cloth - not everyone knows this.

That said, skin/hair/clothes actually NEED washing less than people think, unless you're getting very sweaty or dirty every day. A day of gentle office-style work should not enfilthinate your clothes.

I regularly leave my bed linen on for a month at a time, I don't smell, the bed sheets don't smell, I shower nightly, the bed is aired everyday. I also wear my bra more than once and wear outdoor shoes in the house, kiss the dog regularly and I'm still here

Hate flies though, I'm not tolerant of them in the slightest

@HesterShaw1

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?

I think that these things have some type of ritualistic/emotional significance in the minds of those who stick to them. Many religious codes have rituals that are nominally about cleanliness, but are in fact just irrational mumbo jumbo. Issues around cloven hooves, and women menstruating come to mind.

Who doesn't wash bras or clean their teeth?! I think this boat be a very small minority!

@WarwickHunt that's a good point I guess.

I figured it wouldn't be long until some brainwashed American started banging on about mixer taps and washing chicken.

@castemary

I am comparing to wealthy South Asian countries

Which ones? I've worked (and lived) in Asia and I can't think of a country in South Asia which is as clean as Britain.

@WarwickHunt cultural norms aren't to be sniffed at. It's really neither here nor there whether or not you managed to not shower for a year and eat chicken fresh out the butchers without washing but are still here. For some of us these rituals are significant. Some people are actually proud about how dirty they are. I'm not one of them.

[quote VladmirsPoutine]@WarwickHunt cultural norms aren't to be sniffed at. It's really neither here nor there whether or not you managed to not shower for a year and eat chicken fresh out the butchers without washing but are still here. For some of us these rituals are significant. Some people are actually proud about how dirty they are. I'm not one of them.[/quote]
What does washing a chicken do that cooking it doesn’t?

If I wore a bra I'd wash it after a few wears.
I shower every other day and wash my hair twice a week. I strip the beds once a week and the towels go in once a week. I soak my dishcloth every night and wash tea towels twice a week. I brush my teeth and wash my hands.

As long as no one offends me with their odor I honestly couldn't care less how many times their bra has been washed

I kissed my dogs, when I had them, but I must admit I don’t like seeing dogs being allowed to lick peoples faces, particularly children. 🤢

@Breastfeedingworries

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.

This is luck rather than anything else. I have 2 DC both brought up the same way allowed to play in mud and I'm not a huge fan of cleaning so although my house passes basic standards it is far from sterile and one DC is never ever poorly and the other one pretty much lives in hospital.

Which ones? I've worked (and lived) in Asia and I can't think of a country in South Asia which is as clean as Britain.

Britain isn't clean. Neither is most of Europe. France for a start has a real issue with drainage and dog shit all over the place. Japan is very clean just off the top of my mind - haven't lived in Asia as much as I have in the European continent.

And when you think about it there are some colleagues / friends who you'd happily accept food from and others where you'd pass on the cake that everyone is making a song and dance about.

It's not that unwashed chicken is a cultural norm. It is that it is dirtier to wash it. I accept entirely that Brits aren't particularly clean but washing meat is dirtier and more dangerous.

Plucking, drawing and preparing poultry you've reared and killed yourself at home is a different thing and possibly where the split comes. I can do that too.

I think hand hygiene was dismal pre-pandemic and public transport was objectively filthy. The recent emphasis on soap and water IMO is a really good thing. I think a lot of people use bleach/dettol as a substitute for elbow grease, or because they simply don't know that you need to scrub/agitate something to get it clean and think pouring caustic chemicals over it is enough. Same goes with bathing - marinating in the water doesn't actually get you clean, you have to wash with soap and a wash cloth - not everyone knows this.

That's right. Even on this thread, some people think clean means using bleach or being obsessed with cleanliness. No wonder they're polarising views on cleanliness, where it's either I have to bleach everything down or I'm not obsessed with chemicals, so I rarely clean.

@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.

I dont 'let' my cats on the side. But they do get up there. The kitchen door is shut when we aren't in there so they don't have free reign, but I always wipe the sides down before prepping food anyway so its literally no bother

It's never occurred to me not to accept food at work if offered, particularly cake as it's been cooked!

Not sure how you can make such a sweeping generalisation, to a whole country when your examples are of things that you couldn’t possibly know.... I’m pretty sure the bast majority of women on here will wash their bras more than once a month!!!

When I go to horse riding competitions I'm often away Friday to Sunday. Most of have trailers, not nice lorries, and we sleep in the trailer that the horse has travelled in. Usually we are camping in a field with portaloos and a trough as the only facilities and have to take all water for human use with us. Food storage for the whole weekend is a cool box. By and large it's the healthiest group of people I have ever met.

‘And when you think about it there are some colleagues / friends who you'd happily accept food from and others where you'd pass on the cake that everyone is making a song and dance about.‘

Nope. For me that suggests you either have health anxiety or you work with some unusually unhygienic people. I think the basic hygiene needed to make and serve a safe cake is the norm for all but a tiny minority.

No, I don't think hygeine standards are low in Britain.

Is it perfect? No, far from it. But it's also very, very far from the worst place, if you are looking at the world as a whole.

We are lucky to have all the modern facilities we have which make life easier and cleaner, and if someone wants to live a clean and hygienic life in Britain then it is not difficult to do so.

[quote castemary]@YellowScallion I have never worked anywhere that does even that level of cleaning. In every office I have ever worked in I see at least one colleague using a visibly filthy keyboard.[/quote]
Right and your presumably adult colleagues couldn't just...clean their keyboards themselves?