Should he have washed his hands?

[Spanglebangle]

DH was pottering in the garden, nothing heavy just pulling a few weeds and dead heading a few flowers. He came in and started to unload the dishwasher, I said "shouldn't you wash your hands?" He looked at me like I was crazy.

His hand weren't visibly dirty but surely they needed washing. Personally I was my hands every time I unload the dishwasher. If I'm going to touch all the things we eat off and eat with I want clean hands.

AIBU?

And this is why we needed to have signs telling people to wash their hands.

Just to add that while I'm a generaly lazy slob even aside from covid if we all washed our hands more there'd be less flu, fewer tummy bugs, fewer bugs in general. We don't have to dust our houses to within an inch of our lives but given that we live in a developed nation with clean running water it doesn't take a huge amount of effort to just wash our hands after handling weeds (that have probably been pissed or shat on by wild animals).

Not unreasonable but I have to admit I often forget too. When I'm gardening for a while I always remember to wash my hands but I also go out daily for a minute or two to pull up the few bits of bindweed that have popped up and that's when I don't think about it.

@DirectionsForUse

Do you all scrub every strawberry you eat?

As a kid I used to go strawberry picking and eat the berries straight off the plant

It wasn't a good day out if you didn't come home with filthy hands and a red, strawberry-stained mouth.

Well quite and blackberrying. I wonder how clean the fruit pickers hands are?

@WishingHopingThinkingPraying
Alternatively, I think we have become complacent about the dangers of microbes due to the success of antibiotics.
Just look at how many people used to die of infections a hundred years ago compared to now (improved sanitation and vaccines helped too).
Bacteria are developing new mechanisms to resist antibiotics and it’s estimated that in a couple of decades 10 million people a year will die due to antibiotic resistance. Bacteria aren’t a joke, neither are viruses, fungi, parasites or amoeba.

@Ohhok, the irony is that by not exposing humans to bacteria and viruses, we become more dependent on antibiotics which then become less effective as viruses etc evolve. We'd be much better exposing ourselves a bit more and keeping antibiotics as last resort. And cleaning hands constantly ultimately leaves us vulnerable.

I wash my hands before food prep and handling stuff fresh out the dishwasher. I was taught how to scrub up properly before assisting at operations so can wash my hands throughly. Once covid arrived I had a proper look at how DH washes his hands and it was slap dash to say the least.

I actually don’t use lots of anti bac stuff or cleaning products. I chop food on a chopping board always which is washed but just use a little fairy liquid on my dishcloth which gets chucked in the washing machine.

Has the spread of Covid taught the dirty handed nothing?

We are all part of a society we interact with that contains people who are more vulnerable to disease.

Covid is not the only danger that can be spread by unwashed hands.

People not washing their hands because, "it's okay, I don't ever seem to get sick", are selfish arseholes.

My DH would do this too! He'll go to empty the dishwasher and I'll ask him if he's washed his hands and he'll say he did it 10 minutes ago when he went to the toilet. I'll then say, 'But you've done x y and z since then and you're about to touch things that we use to eat!' It's bloody grim. (And I am a slovenly mare with a very messy unclean house!

@SilverGoblin

Has the spread of Covid taught the dirty handed nothing?

We are all part of a society we interact with that contains people who are more vulnerable to disease.

Covid is not the only danger that can be spread by unwashed hands.

People not washing their hands because, "it's okay, I don't ever seem to get sick", are selfish arseholes.

Would you never go blackberry picking or strawberry picking and eat some of what you pick before going home?

Yes , definitely, it's the same as handling food , and he should have anyway after working in the garden , we are supposedly meant to be washing our hands more often due to covid as well

@SilverGoblin

Has the spread of Covid taught the dirty handed nothing?

We are all part of a society we interact with that contains people who are more vulnerable to disease.

Covid is not the only danger that can be spread by unwashed hands.

People not washing their hands because, "it's okay, I don't ever seem to get sick", are selfish arseholes.

Covid on surfaces has been larged debunked as a method of transmission now anyway. Yes, it's theoretically possible but there's very little evidence of it actually happening.

Wouldn’t have occurred to me to be honest. But I fully accept I am quite slovenly by Mumsnet standards

Thank you everyone.

If I go strawberry picking I will eat them off the plant. I am not a mass I've germophobe. Also that only affects me.

I still believe if you are touching the whole households crockery and cutlery your hands should be clean.

Nobody else has a say in how clean their plate should be. I don't want to risk the children getting poorly.

I see that the poll has been largely in my favour so thank you hand washing Mumsnetters. Everyone else... Just no , go and wash your hands!

I dont make a point to wash hands before unloading dishwasher but I do after mucky activities so would after pulling weeds no matter what I planned to do next. Evening routine involves scooping cat litter before unloading dishwasher so in practice I do wash my hands before unloading but in my head it's more after the cat litter before doing anything else with my hands!

Another parasitologist and all round scientist here.

Can confirm he should wash his hands.

Can confirm that hand washing is not responsible for the "over sanitisation" of the world, including increase in asthma and allergies.

I wash my hands if I've been doing a bit of gardening before I do anything in the house.
However, worse...much, much worse, are the people who put their wheelie bins out and bring them back in and don't wash their hands.
Imagine, all those filthy bins that the refuse collector had handled before handling yours 🤢

Maybe we should all wear plastic gloves when in the garden or putting the bins out ?
I have been for years .
Nothing New here .

@DirectionsForUse

Do you all scrub every strawberry you eat?

Yes! I wash all fruit and veg. Anyone that doesn't could be eating literal shit. Plus, how many people could have handled it? Or if it's from your own garden, how many snails could have crawled all over it or foxes pissed on it? Anyone that doesn't wash fruit and veg is 🤮 too.

Hiw do you "wash" a strawberry without ruining it? A rinse under the tap isn't going to clean it effectively. I rinse them, mostly to get the dust off, but I'm not going to kid myself they're "clean" like hand washing for 20s with soap.

@Spanglebangle

To all those saying I am unreasonable, surely the garden is full of animal waste. Slugs, snails, birds, who knows what else.

Surely the idea of the poo transferring to your cutlery is vomit inducing?

^ yup I always wash my hands before food prep or touching cutlery etc. YANBU

[quote WishingHopingThinkingPraying]@Ohhok, the irony is that by not exposing humans to bacteria and viruses, we become more dependent on antibiotics which then become less effective as viruses etc evolve. We'd be much better exposing ourselves a bit more and keeping antibiotics as last resort. And cleaning hands constantly ultimately leaves us vulnerable.[/quote]
This is all a muddle - washing hands has nothing to do with antibiotic resistance and antibiotics have nothing to do with viruses.

Antibacterial resistance is a real issue but it is nothing to do with normal cleanliness, rather the overuse of antibiotics including in meat production.

Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, they don't work on viruses. www.nhs.uk/conditions/antibiotics/