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?

@cultkid

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

Do you really not wash your hands after going to the toilet for a wee?

@RaspberryCoulis

See I don't think you're going to catch it from products either. Or the sanitizer bottle - because you're touching it, then sanitizing.

Covid is spread by face to face contact, at a distance of less than 2 metres, for 15 minutes or more.

Not by touching stuff in supermarkets.

I don't understand why you are quite SO upset by this. It's just a quick wipe.

The truth is there is still so much about this virus that we don't know, so it's better to just be as safe as possible.

It does survive on surfaces, which means you CAN actually catch it from things you touch in a supermarket. The 15 minutes thing is literally just a guideline. You can catch a virus in a second if you're in contact with it.

Might as well spend 5 seconds giving something a wipe and being too safe than be too flippant about it. I think you are being quite irresponsible to not use hand gel as well.

@RaspberryCoulis

See I don't think you're going to catch it from products either. Or the sanitizer bottle - because you're touching it, then sanitizing.

Covid is spread by face to face contact, at a distance of less than 2 metres, for 15 minutes or more.

Not by touching stuff in supermarkets.

well, that shows how much you know. or rather don't.

Do you know that libraries are putting books aside into quarantine for a few days? And book shops?

If someone has covid and they touch their nose, or eyes, or sneeze, or cough, and then pick up a plastic packet in a shop and put it back what do you think might happen?

They shed the virus. That's why in dentists etc they are wiping the entire seat where you sit for treatment. It doesn't take someone to cough on it. Or sneeze.

I wash my hands before going to the supermarket and usually sanitise them when I leave my car if I'm driving there. The chances of me carrying enough viral load unknowingly on my washed hand to spread a virus is miniscule.

You misunderstand. I was talking about what you will be transferring from the trolley handle to everything inside the shop that you touch.

well, that shows how much you know. or rather don't.

Do you know that libraries are putting books aside into quarantine for a few days? And book shops?

Are they still? They weren’t last time I went in (a Waterstones)

It's definitely not silly. It's a basic infection control procedure. It's what clinical services do (I work in infectious diseases), it's what stores have been advised to do themselves to keep contact points clean. If wiping surfaces to prevent spread of infections was such a silly idea, then there wouldn't be such a massive industry and people who implement infection control plans, etc around exactly this, even well before COVID. For what it's worth, as someone who works in the field, yes, I wipe down the trolley handle with a clinical grade wipe before I use it. I can't really see a reason not to, but I also don't think it's a requirement if you don't think it's something you yourself would want to do.

Nope, never bothered. Performance hygiene.

What the OP doesn't realise is that in some settings, if they are doing it right, they are sanitising everything between each patient/client.

That's chairs and anything touched.

Why @RaspberryCoulis do you think magazines have been removed from drs and dentists waiting rooms? or hairdressers?

You seem quite ignorant of what measures other places apart from shops are doing to reduce contact with surfaces that can hold onto the virus.

"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?"

Ok so this is quite simple.

Let's say the person who used the trolley before you has Covid. They've sneezed or whatever and have transferred the virus to the handle of the trolley.

You don't sanitise the handle, therefore you get Covid on your hands.

You're then going around the supermarket touching stuff, transferring it to other surfaces.

You don't wash your hands until you get home, so dependig on how you're getting home, you transfer it to door handles, surfaces on the bus, etc.

You finally get home and wash your hands but by that point you have transferred Covid all over the place.

That is how you are spreading it. A simple wipe or sanitising your hands prevents this.

@Pipandmum

I used to wipe them when people didn't have to where a mask but don't bother now. Unless someone sneezed on the handles very unlikely, but I suppose those hands are handling all sorts of goods in the store. But I never wiped down my purchases either.

The other day I watched somebody sitting about a meter from a hand sanitiser dispenser cover their mask with their hand to cough and then touch a load of things without sanitising their hands. If covid is going to be anywhere it's the outside of your mask. People are probably more likely to have covid on their hands when they touch the trolley handle because they've just touched their mask to put it on.

I am probably OCD ish but have wiped down trolleys and baskets i use for the last 20 years. I dont queue to use the shops gel/wipes as use my own.

I'm sure I remember a study a while ago that looked at stuff that carried the highest bacterial load - particularly bacteria that came from faeces. It was found that petrol pumps and supermarket trollies grew the biggest cultures of nasty stuff.

And yes, I know covid is viral and bacterial, but there are similar themes. Still grim.

Go to Waitrose. The trolly handles are cleaned for you,

I've never wiped down a trolley or basket. I wash my hands, use sanitiser, wear a mask, do my shopping and wash my hand immediately I get home and then after putting the shopping away.

What a palaver just to go to the supermarket...

I don’t sanitise the trolley handle. I think it comes down to managing risk and that is one choice that doesn’t make enough worth for me. I wear a mask, I self scan using my phone, I don’t touch things unless I intend to buy them and I sanitise my hands before and after shopping. However I wouldn’t mind a cattle prod to zap every muppet who wears the mask wrong and leaves their nose hanging out like a wee dick.

I don’t do it as time I’ve caged my 2 year old into the trolley seat is there any point and no way am I going to queue for cleaner with home on the loose haha! By that point he will have touched even more than just the trolley!

Thing is - generally in the supermarkets I use you’ve walked across the car park with said trolley before you even get to their cleaning stations. Pretty pointless after you’ve already touched it no?

No never do it. And never use sanitiser either.

Round here the trollies are kept outside. So by the time we have pushed the trolley to the indoor sanitising station its probably too late anyway...

@wildraisins

So far there has been zero documented evidence of secondary COVID transmission via surfaces (with one person touching a contaminated surface and then transmitting the virus to different fomîtes).

There is some very limited documented evidence of suspected fomite transmission between two individuals. The cases are so rare that everyone tends to quote the same old examples (a church in Singapore, a shopping mall in China and an elevator in either Australia or NZ - I have forgotten).

The chance of OP spreading COVID by touching the trolley handle and transferring the virus to a different surface is pretty much zero.

Cleanliness is never pointless. I just wish all people in every supermarket washed before leaving the house.

no way am I going to queue for cleaner with home on the loose haha!

You don’t have to queue! Use your own hand sanitiser! Also, you’re happy for your two year old to rub their hands all over a potentially covid laden handle and then stick their hands in their mouth, nose, eyes etc?

Our supermarkets have a worker on duty to sanitise every trolley after it’s returned, they spray the whole thing down. Another one has someone stand at the door and spritz our hands with sanitiser if we want it too.

@CoronaIsWatching

Nope, never bothered. Performance hygiene.

That's such an idiotic ignorant thing to say.

@Meepmeeep

Thing is - generally in the supermarkets I use you’ve walked across the car park with said trolley before you even get to their cleaning stations. Pretty pointless after you’ve already touched it no?

Why would it be pointless. Once you get to the sanitiser you wash the trolley then sanitise your hands. Why would the walk to the sanitiser make that pointless? Are you licking the trolley handle during the walk?

I'd happily use the sanitiser even without covid spread being an issue. Wiping off the grubby makes me feel much better about touching them.