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?

Oh god OP are you always so obtuse?? There’s no laws no...but you cannot argue with the fact that if you sanitise you hands then you get rid of 99.9% (most of the time!) of bacteria/viruses etc. You literally have no idea...but don’t you think you are setting a double standard? You are CHOOSING not to sanitise, but if you were to get sick tomorrow (which may be your own fault!) you would fully expect all the doctors and nurses caring for you to sanitise whilst caring for you!?

@chipsandgin

I wiped down them before all this - in a study done in 2016 they found 72% of trollies had faecal matter (actual poo residue & bacteria from faeces) on the handles as well as staph bacteria, cold and flu viruses and gastro bugs. I’d rather not have those things or anything else on my hands as I shop & pick up items to take home, I prefer my wine bottles without added poo bacteria thanks.

if you watch the brainless twats wearing masks under their noses coughing all over them or the scuzzy people who walk out of public toilets without washing hands who then pop over to grab a basket I think the fact that cleaning trollies is now the norm is fucking brilliant, long may it continue!

Exactly this ^

I actually think the one good thing to have come out of this year so far is that people have realised how dirty a lot of things are and just how easy it is to pick up a virus.

I don't mean that people should be over cautious - I just mean that people have been so blasé before.

How many people now wash their hands more (like after the loo or touching handrails in public places), now than did before? Many people are just lazy or plain stupid to be frank. So this has been an education in basic hygiene.

If the sanitizer isn't used correctly, which most people don't, they may as well not bother. You have to spray, leave the sanitizer to work for a few seconds, then wipe off. Most people just spray then wipe off straight away. That's 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 have never ever done this and go to Tesco at least three times a week.

@CherryCherries that is incorrect and is not the case at all. Where did you hear that?

Because when you’re at the sanitising station you also sanitise your hands

I don’t, I detest the way that vile stuff dries my hands out. As I said, pointless. 🤷‍♀️

Oh well then yes, pointless for you to sanitise the trolley if you’re not going to do the whole process properly. Yes- half assing it would make it pointless.

@RaspberryCoulis

The point is it minimises risk - really?

It minimises are very teeny tiny ultra-low risk into an even more teeny tiny risk? Same as washing your shopping, having a shower when you come in from outside, quarantining deliveries, not leaving the house, disinfecting your Christmas cards and all the other totally OTT things people have been doing.

Starting to see why people have started to go a bit nuts with the sanitising, cleaning, OCD tendencies and worries about germs.

Oh do pack it in. You cannot win this argument.

Anything we do to minimise risk is worth it, even if it saves one old person catching Covid and dying.

You're clearly someone who loves to argue even when you can't see what you say is nonsense, so why not just leave this, go and eat your tea or whatever.

Why are posters constantly bleating on about doctors and hospitals? That's irrelevant and a very different scenario to supermarket shopping.

We don't expect our kitchens to have the same level of sterility as an operating theatre. You shouldn't expect a supermarket to be the same as a hospital.

You'd think that'd be obvious, but apparently not.

@RaspberryCoulis

Why are posters constantly bleating on about doctors and hospitals? That's irrelevant and a very different scenario to supermarket shopping.

We don't expect our kitchens to have the same level of sterility as an operating theatre. You shouldn't expect a supermarket to be the same as a hospital.

You'd think that'd be obvious, but apparently not.

Nobody on the thread has suggested that supermarkets should be as sterile as operating theatres.

Many have suggested that it's a good idea to minimise the risk as best you can in the situation you're in. So, doctors sterilise everything to kingdom come, shoppers wear masks and wipe stuff.

It's too complicated for you, isn't it: It lowers risk a little. So it helps.

I think it's pointless and have never sanitised trolley handles. Or wiped down shopping.
I've obeyed all the rules. Worn a mask.
But most of the other things people seem to do, I think is completely ridiculous.

I once got a hideous stomach bug from a trolley handle years ago. It was my own fault as I was killing time after shopping so I went for a coffee and a cake in the cafe. Stupidly, and unusually for me, I didn't wash my hands before eating the cake.

I have been a bit obsessed about trolley handles since and have always scrubbed my hands after going shopping ever since. All this sanitising trolley handles is suiting me down to the ground! Long may it continue in my opinion!

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."

I don't agree with any of this.
Is there any evidence at all that the virus lives on trolley handles?

I think not.

@Itstheprinciple

I once got a hideous stomach bug from a trolley handle years ago. It was my own fault as I was killing time after shopping so I went for a coffee and a cake in the cafe. Stupidly, and unusually for me, I didn't wash my hands before eating the cake.

I have been a bit obsessed about trolley handles since and have always scrubbed my hands after going shopping ever since. All this sanitising trolley handles is suiting me down to the ground! Long may it continue in my opinion!

How did you narrow down your illness to a trolley handle?

"It minimises are very teeny tiny ultra-low risk into an even more teeny tiny risk?"

Just a reminder that your maths was completely wrong in your first post. So you don't seem like the best person to assess statistical risk.

@Oblomov20

It's well documented that the virus can live for several days on plastic surfaces. Try googling it.

Why do you think not, in spite of the evidence?

I narrowed it down to the trolley handle because that was the only time I'd eaten without good hand hygiene. I'm usually very careful as I hate vomiting. I don't know what came over me that day but it didn't end well.

Obviously I didn't swab it so can't be 100% but it seems to fit. Subsequently, I've heard reports of the amount of germs on trolley handles and taken great delight in pointing it out to DH who thought I was a bit OTT about hand washing after shopping.

Oh gosh I've been to supermarket not question handles in basket gone home forgot to wash hands and touched food I ate...I still survived.

I tend to just out hand sanitiser on my hands before picking up a basket or getting a trolley.

@RaspberryCoulis

Why are posters constantly bleating on about doctors and hospitals? That's irrelevant and a very different scenario to supermarket shopping.

We don't expect our kitchens to have the same level of sterility as an operating theatre. You shouldn't expect a supermarket to be the same as a hospital.

You'd think that'd be obvious, but apparently not.

I can't decide if you are bored tonight and have nothing else to do other than pretend you don't understand, and are enjoying the attention, OR if you rally don't understand and it's all too complicated for you.

The reason I described what happens in the dentists is to tell you that the virus can live on surfaces.

You were disagreeing that it could be spread in any other way apart from being near to someone who was coughing or sneezing.
Your entire thread is based around your misunderstanding of transmission.

Why do you think that most shops prefer cards to cash?
Why did they raise the limit for contactless up to £45?

(BIG CLUE- to avoid touching the keypad...)

You seem to have been living in a parallel universe for the last 9 months.

@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

You ONLY wash your hands after a poo, not EVERY time you go to the bathroom?? What about all the other people who have touched the doors etc perhaps without washing their hands and cross-contamination? Yuk.

Most supermarkets I've seen use D10. That needs contact time to work.

What about all the other people who have touched the doors etc perhaps without washing their hands and cross-contamination? Yuk

They will have touched the main door handle you use to leave the toilets, too. After you've washed your hands. This is why I've never understood those 'wave your hand in front of it' flush things. You still have to get out using the bolt and the 'external' door handle.

Why are posters constantly bleating on about doctors and hospitals? That's irrelevant and a very different scenario to supermarket shopping.

Microbes and viruses don't give a fuck about where they are. Hospital. Shop. Inside your car. All the same to them.

Doctors and hospitals just places where they they've had more practice at this sort of stuff. And usually the risk of cross-contamination and of spreading infection disease is higher than the outside world - unless careful hygiene measures are taken.

Normally the risks in the outside world of catching an incurable contagious disease that might just kill you are lower than they are now.

When circumstances change it's a good idea to look see how people who have been dealing with the new circumstances (or as similar as you can find) on a regular long term basis go about their work.

You know? The experts.

That's why.

You do realise that a huge chunk of COVID transmission is happening in supermarkets, right? This information was released a few weeks ago. It makes perfect sense to be as cautious as possible whilst there.