AIBU to think wiping down trolley handles is utterly pointless?

[RaspberryCoulis]

Just back from my weekly trek round Asda to do the shopping. Got hissed at by some woman because I bypassed the queue of people waiting in a (socially distanced) queue to spray and wipe their trolley handles.

I never bother, I have never bothered. Seems utterly pointless. Rates of Covid in my area sitting around 100 per 100,000. That's 0.001%. Even if you believe that 90% are asymptomatic, that would be 1000 per 100,000 or 0.01%. You'd have to be very unlucky for one of the 0.01% to be the person who had the trolley before you.

Then, that person would have had to be not wearing a mask (mask compliance in this town is very high), sneeze/cough/lick the trolley handle (removing their mask to do so), and then i'd have to smear my hands exactly where they'd licked, remove my own mask, and lick my fingers.

A somewhat unlikely scenario.

It's all about the supermarkets trying to show how "covid secure" they are, isn't it? And actually, it makes bugger all difference?

I don't know the stats on this

But

She was rude to speak to you it's none of her business
I never sanitise either but I do wear a mask

Surely if the place was contaminated so are the products so it doesn't make a difference

I wash my hands after I go to the toilet for a poo or changing nappies and handling raw meat but thats sort of it

I am really not a handwasher TBH and I never get sick

I agree, I don’t bother.

I imagine far more people touch the spray bottles of sanitiser than touch each individual trolley/basket anyway. So if you were worried about it, that bottle of spray seems like the last thing you should touch. (I know some people will use gloves, or hold the bottle with paper towel).

It’s not just transmitted by hand to mouth.

If you touch your eyes, nose or other bodily orifice, or if you’ve got an open cut/graze ect after touching an infected object/surface etc it can be transmitted that way.

I generally do give the trolley handles a wipe down, but then think to myself what’s the point as the rest of the trolley isn’t sanitised and I’m picking up items on the shelves.

I use alcohol gel before and after I’ve shopped, that is probably enough to protect myself as long as I don’t touch an orifice ect 😷

One of the very few benefits of masks - no-one can see you muttering "just fuck off" as you walk past them. She didn't really speak to me.. she did that typically British passive aggressive thing of commenting loudly to her husband about SOME PEOPLE who think they don't have to follow the rules about sanitising.

the more cleaning the better.

you got abuse because you did the 'I'm more important than anyone else' thing. OK, you aren't Rita Ora but you can't expect to be liked for this.

f you touch your eyes, nose or other bodily orifice, or if you’ve got an open cut/graze ect after touching an infected object/surface etc it can be transmitted that way.

Yes I know, but firstly it has to be present on that particular trolley or basket handle, and in sufficient quantities to make you ill.

I agree with you, I never wipe the trolley handles (though some of the supermarkets I go to have a member of staff wiping handles before distributing trollies anyway.)

I hate having to hold a wet trolley handle, but I suppose it makes some people feel reassured.

I also feel that if it is on the trolley handles (unlikely) it is just as likely to be on the rest of the trolley and therefore on my shopping/on any of the products on the shelves/on the handle of the sanitising spray/on the buttons of the chip and pin machine etc.

I wash my hands before setting off shopping, and again on my return, and I put on a mask as I enter each shop and remove it as I leave.

Did you maintain social distancing when you walked past the queue? That might have been part of her issue. Also, the fact you don't seem to care about who you spread covid to, no matter how small the risk.

Fortunately for you, other people ARE taking precautions which, inadvertently, put you at less risk. It’s like the people who don’t think they need to get vaccinated because everyone else does. Thankfully not everyone thinks like you.

I don’t not clean the trolley because I think everyone else does so I needn’t bother. If no else else ever sanitised the trolley, I still wouldn’t.

@murbblurb

the more cleaning the better.

you got abuse because you did the 'I'm more important than anyone else' thing. OK, you aren't Rita Ora but you can't expect to be liked for this.

Even if that cleaning's pointless? Loads of cleaning chemicals, loads of blue paper to dry it with - that's a cost to the environment. More cleaning is not always better.

And I don't expect a medal, it's nobody's business but mine. If you really, really think there's a risk from handling an "infected" trolley, you carry on with your squirting and wiping and don't pass comment on people who can't be arsed and think it's pointless.

I have always been very cautious of trolley handles, after reading a report - way before covid - about what was found on a sample of them, including faecal matter

I don’t because I am also touching things in store that have been touched by others. Someone picking up a loaf of bread and putting it back then I pick it up etc. I’m just careful not to touch my face and sanitise when I get back in the car.

100 per 100,000 is 1 per 1000, which is 0.1%. Still statistically small though.

I do clean trolley handles because it only takes 10 seconds and I figure it might help, and certainly won’t hurt. I don’t judge those that don’t though.

Yanbu. Transmission is usually through prolonged contact (15 mins +) with an infected person. The chance of the virus being on the trolley in a high enough load to make you sick is slim. Plus, think how many people touch those sanitizer sprays/ bottles. I just don’t touch my face when I’ve touched the trolley, which I did for years before covid, anyway.

Don't Asda sanitise the trolleys?
Waitrose do.

Your maths is very wrong. It’s actually 1% in your second (high number of asymptomatic) scenario.

I think anything that reduces the risk even slightly and isn’t harmful is worth doing; I find it frustrating how many people don’t bother any more with wiping down trolleys or sanitising their hands. Also to be honest this pandemic has made me realise that there’s various things that aren’t very hygienic; the person in front of you with the trolley may not have washed their hands after using the toilet so I happily clean things others have touched and I’ve noticed that me and our DC have had less colds this year

@Letsnotargue

100 per 100,000 is 1 per 1000, which is 0.1%. Still statistically small though.

I do clean trolley handles because it only takes 10 seconds and I figure it might help, and certainly won’t hurt. I don’t judge those that don’t though.

Maths never was my strong point!

Also would love to know how by not sanitising the trolley I'm spreading it around. If I don't have it myself - and my lifestyle means I'm very low risk - and I'm being a good girl wearing my mask and washing my hands when I get home again, how am I spreading it?

YANBU. I've never bothered doing this.

@potter5

Don't Asda sanitise the trolleys? Waitrose do.

No they don't. It's probably another example on a long list of 'reasons why Waitrose is nicer but more expensive than Asda'.

I hope one day we can find out what number of people caught Covid from an unsanitised trolley in Asda. I expect the number to be extremely low. Probably lower than the number of people slipping over on spilt sanitiser.

@RaspberryCoulis - I had to change all of my year 6 science planning this year on micro organisms. We have always taught the children that viruses are a different type as they can only survive on a living host, not hard surfaces...... now I am not a microbiologist but it’s seems strange that fact has changed...!!

Waitrose and M&S do it for you round here. Asda, Aldi, Tesco supply the materials and let you do it for yourself. (Or not, as the case may be)

Last time I was in M&S the girl on the door said "basket or trolley", I said "basket", she squirted some stuff all over it and handed me a sopping wet basket.

Gee thanks.

Also would love to know how by not sanitising the trolley I'm spreading it around. If I don't have it myself - and my lifestyle means I'm very low risk - and I'm being a good girl wearing my mask and washing my hands when I get home again, how am I spreading it

You personally, probably aren't spreading the virus, but you have to look at it on a population level. Those trolleys are handled by many people.

Some of those people will have it and if those people cough the virus onto their hands and touch the trolley, or just cough and it lands on the trolley, then its on the trolley, where it could remain for hours/days. So in the time that many people touch the trolley, some of those people will get the virus on their hands and then touch their eyes/nose/mouth before they wash their hands again and likely to catch the virus themselves. Or they might touch another surface and leave the virus to pass on to someone else.

So by sanitising the trolley and having hand sanitiser available, you're reducing the risk of transmission. So out of a million interactions between people and surfaces, you might reduce the transmission from 1 in 100 to in 1 in 1000 (numbers plucked out of the air for illustration) so helps reduce transmission of the virus.

We can't eliminate the virus or the risk of transmission. But we can do a lot to reduce the risk of transmission, which will hopefully reduce the numbers and lead to it bumping along at a low level until the most vulnerable are vaccinated rather than it spreading like wildfire and the cases increasing out of control.