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 sanitize because of all the other bugs- urgh including things like norovirus and those from faecal contamination. Mind you also hate any communal door handle.
If you hold the trolley handle and it is infected you will also be transferring it to the food you then put in so washing you hands afterwards wont help.

Of course it makes sense to wipe it down. I would have thought that was obvious.

@17days: Exactly!
And far more succinctly put than me.

It's pointless, I'm about to start touching any number of services/products other people might have touched. Wash before you go in, then I santise my hands as I leave and wash again when home.

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...!!

Nothing has changed. You have been teaching incorrect information. 😮

Viruses can remain, without a living host, on door handles, trolleys etc for varying amounts of time. This time depends on the type of virus, the surface type, ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, pH, temperature etc. I think you are confusing it with how viruses do damage. Simplifying it down, in living things viruses invade cells and only at that point can they reproduce and cause harm.

It’s frightening that so many people feel qualified to comment on this virus and say what is a risk or not, when children are receiving the wrong information from teachers.

@RaspberryCoulis

Agree. And yeah she was a rude cow. I have noticed that no-one ever says anything to MEN. Woman AND men seem to think it's OK to comment and say shit to women, but never to men. (In my experience.)

My DH is obsessed with wiping the trolley (or basket) with wipes and disinfectant in EVERY bloody shop we go in. He also sanitises his hands in every shop we go in too! Even if he just did it 3 minutes before!!! Drives me batshit, and I hate going out with him (shopping) because of this. (He has always been OK, but since the bloody covid shit started, he has been really annoying when we go out together shopping, which we do once a week.)

He even grizzles and growls and anyone who dares step closer than 6 feet away from him, and some people don't do it on purpose. He is wearing a mask, and is covered in fucking sanitiser, so I don't know why he is worried!!!

I have got to the point now, where I just march in the shop and leave him behind, because I am so fucked off with it. And yeah I DO sanitise, but am not a total obsessive! Of course it's good to be careful, and clean, but some people are ridiculously obsessed.

And there is no need for it. Sanitising every single thing they touch, and then sanitising themselves. Just bonkers. You have people who put loo brushes and mooncups in dishwashers (vom) and then you have the other extreme, of batshit crazy hygiene.

As you say OP, it's so pointless, not least because everything in the shop has been prodded and poked and fingered by dozens of different people. And as a pp said, the rude cow who had a go at you, probably went on to finger a load of tomatoes, and apples etc...

@RaspberryCoulis

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

Funnily enough I DID know that! I'm a charity shop volunteer and we're told to quarantine stuff for 72 hours.

That's utterly pointless too.

Some people still think the world is flat.

You can't waste time arguing with them.

Instead of showing your sheer lack of understanding, maybe get off MN and start reading about transmission.

Read about what the Chinese did when it first came out over there as well.

@Stepintochristmas

Regardless of whether or not they wear a mask, they could still have the virus on their hands when they touch the trolley.

And it’s not just about the 1 person who used the trolley before you, it’s about the potentially hundreds the use it throughout the day. If no one ever wiped them down then I would say there’s a fairly good chance that over the course of a day the virus can be found on one of those supermarket trolleys. It’s probably safe to say that a thousand people use a large supermarket in a day so, using your logic, one of those is likely to be contagious.

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.

This.

I wipe handles every time. Not just for Covid but because the clarty bastard three people before me who used it after going for a shit and not washing their hands, For the congenital nosepicker who wiped his bogeys on the thing, for the... you get the picture.

And I wipe it because the elderly person who will use it next might not think to, or the toddler in the wee seat might decide to lick the handle...

My opinion? The OP is an entitled selfish twat and the hissing woman was perfectly right.

I bring my own dettol wipe just for wiping the trolley. But even before covid, trolley handles, elevator buttons, public loo doors, handles on the tube etc grossed me out ever since I saw men picking their noses and wiping it on surfaces/flicking and touching things, people coming out of the loo and not washing their hands touching the door handles etc

I also sanitise my hands while shopping. Once home I wash my hands, the produce/wipe packets too

Instead of showing your sheer lack of understanding, maybe get off MN and start reading about transmission.

That's what doctors and people with PhDs are for.

Transmission happens face to face, when you're close to people without masks on. In hospitals, care homes, people's houses.

The "risks" from trolley handles, a donation which comes into a charity shop, an Amazon delivery or your groceries is so minimal as to be almost negligible.

Agree also that this focus on germs and bacteria and dirt everywhere, and trying to eradicate every single bug is unhealthy. In 50 years time when the planet is drowning in single use plastic wipes, discarded cleaning products, face masks and hand sanitizer bottles, scientists will be looking back at the time we all went a bit loopy.

And the point about "well she would go and touch other stuff..." is nul.

The trolley handle is the one thing that EVERYONE will touch.

Cross infection rates in hospitals were drastically reduced when a system of regularly cleaning computer keyboards was introduced - I think one system locked the computer until the keyboard had been wiped - the keyboard was the ONE thing that every member of staff would touch during the day.

@IrmaFayLear

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

THIS Some people are downright filthy, and E.coli has been found all over trolley handles, touch screens, and door handles.

E coli comes from shit.

People clearly aren't washing hands thoroughly after using the loo.
I do wipe down trolley/basket handles, but did microbiology as part of a course, and that was an eye opener.

Also, the non mask wearers spray saliva as they talk..the local shops have a perspex screens misted with saliva spray from the 'plosives' of speech where customers ask for stuff.

Blooming gross. Masks help protect others.

That's what doctors and people with PhDs are for

Do you think that the decision to wipe the trolley handles, and other similar decisions, comes from information provided by doctors and PHDs, or d'you reckon that people like you just rocked up and said they fancied the idea of everyone doing it?

If you think we should be listening to the science, then listen to the science. This virus can be transmitted by touching a surface that has been touched by someone contagious. The more surfaces we wipe, the more we minimise the risk. It's logic, and will not fall because you're having a tantrum about it.

I walked past the sanitising queue this morning . I personally avoid the trollers because I don't want to touch it to get it to the sanitising point . I want them to be cleaned before I touch them altogether so I manage with bags .
I always sanitise my hands with my own stuff when I get out the car so I don't have to touch all that stuff . The can scowl at me all they like !

YANBU. It’s not mandatory so if people feel more comfortable, cool, but if you don’t want to, don’t. Personally, I don’t bother. I sanitise my hands before and after. If I was going to wipe the basket, it would mean also wiping every item I touch in the shop and I’ve not got time for that.

RaspberryCoulis

Do you have any type of Science background? I doubt it as you’ve stated and shown that Maths isn’t your thing. As others have said you show a lack of understanding but do it so confidently.

You seem to know an awful lot about all of this.

A little bit... I follow a mix of epidemiologists on twitter. I have also been on the “Daily numbers...” MN thread since it started back in March. It was a great source of information and some of the posters back at the start of the pandemic might have been more knowledgeable than the SAGE members. I am not talking about myself though.

Are you a member of Sage or just trying to offend people who happen to like Waitrose and the food they sell?

I definitely didn’t mean to offend anyone. My post about Waitrose clientele was just a statement of fact. I like Waitrose and I probably fall into their demographics myself:). However, post COVID I prefer more “relaxed” places (e.g. a socially diverse supermarket not far from my place) where no one is checking whether others sanitise their hands or trolley handles.

I beverage rely on others too do this sort of thing anyway.. I always wipe my own with my own gel and I absolutely think it's worth it.. Regardless of corona goodness knows how many hands have touched and gripped that handle!. Touching more stuff on shelves then hands back on it... Coughing into the hand etc... Yuk

Do you think that the decision to wipe the trolley handles, and other similar decisions, comes from information provided by doctors and PHDs, or d'you reckon that people like you just rocked up and said they fancied the idea of everyone doing it?

No. I think the supermarkets and other shops are acutely aware that many of their customers are feeling anxious. They are therefore putting in very visible shows of hygiene to make those customers feel better, have more confidence to shop, linger longer, spend more money. Irrespective of the fact that as others have pointed out the risk of supermarket shopping in general is very low, people have had the shit scared out of them since March and have been told how very dangerous everything is.

It was never official government advice to wash your shopping unless you were extremely vulnerable, but people think they should do it anyway. All sorts of organisations rushed out advice based on a worst-case scenario situation - such as the charity research assoc advising a 72 hour quarantine. Once that advice is out there it's impossible to dial it back and admit you were a wee bit hasty.

People believe there really is a risk from touching stuff or not quarantining their shopping. Supermarkets daren't stop all the sanitising palaver because many of their customers would be up in arms about Asda removing sanitisers and killing grannies.

I don't use any of the sanitisers at all, and anyone who judges me can fuck off.
My skin has decided to become hypersensitive and I've just managed to get part the urticaria on the backs of my hands being so itchy that I wake up scratching them in the night.
So no I'm not putting a bunch of shit on to make it worse. Or doing any of the other performative nonsense that seems to now form the weird quasi-religious core of what's left of our public existence.

The lady was probably more annoyed that you bypassed the whole queue which is quite annoying.

I myself don't think there is much point in cleaning them but I do it anyway incase I'm wrong.

you show a lack of understanding but do it so confidently

Defiantly, I'd say. Actually stating that you're not going to look into it yourself, whilst arguing an uneducated viewpoint, is the definition of stupid.

'I've decided I'm right' does not a fact make.

many of their customers would be up in arms about Asda removing sanitisers and killing grannies

Yes. That's the many, many people who disagree with you!

@LisaLee333 you’re so right, it is always aimed at women.

No. I think the supermarkets and other shops are acutely aware that many of their customers are feeling anxious. They are therefore putting in very visible shows of hygiene to make those customers feel better, have more confidence to shop, linger longer, spend more money.

🤦🏻‍♀️ You do realise that the government issued advice to schools, supermarkets and other workplaces to wipe down desks, equipment, trollies etc based on scientific advice don’t you?
People like you are actually dangerous, spreading misinformation and not following rules. I hope you’re a troll and this is a wind up.