handwashing after using the toilet

[nannybeach]

For all those of you who recently casually commented that you dont wash yours hands after visiting the toilet, today is "World Handwashing day", without facilitis for this germs and problems are rife.We do have the facilities to hand fresh clean water, no excuse. Would you want operating on with a surgeon who had just had a poo and not washed!

nannybeach I know you say you are a nurse, but I think you are incorrect to say that bacteria from faeces can permeate thick loo paper when wiping. If this is so, please link to some real science. Also, giving the example of gloved hands smelling after cleaning a patient's bum is not the same at all. Smells do not equal transfer of bacteria! Latex gloves are not porous. I'm a bit shocked that as a nurse, you post stuff like this.

I sometimes don’t wash my hands in the public loo I have a skin condition called Mechanic’s Hands and when I have a flare up it can be very painful to wash my hands, especially if the water is cold. If I were about to eat then I would suffer and wash my hands, otherwise I’ll wait until I get home and the water temperature is easier to control and there are nice towels. If I don’t wash my hands then I use antibacterial gel as a stop gap. I know it may seem revolting but the pain can be unbearable.

If you guys think the lack of hand washing is bad wAit till you hear this

I was in loo in a supermarket yesterday, the occupant of the cubicle next to me didn't even wipe her arse! And she'd not just had a wee (heard it all)

Do you mean roller towels as in separable tissue type things for hands, or those long rollers where it's not separable? Because those things are useless. They're always damp, which is surely a breeding ground for bacteria. Even if people using it have washed their hands.

If the tap is one that switches itself off, fine. If I have to touch it again (now with warm, moist hands) to pick up everyone else's germs.... Not unless I absolutely have to

I didnt say I am am a nurse, I said I was, gloves werent latex, they went out years ago, because of the alergies.and toilet paper IS permiable!Germs are micrscopic, you cannot see them, that is the point, there are plenty of scientific stats out there you can look up for yourself, or you can go round in blissful ignorangce, you cannot see the germs so they dont exist.

Quara will andswer the questions by scientists, regarding YES bacteria and virses do pass through tissue.

Oh, and by the way, I never said that gloves latex or otherwise were porus.

YANBU , who would actually admit to not hand washing , it’s disgusting .As another ex nurse I totally agree with you OP .

Polly - when I was student, in our biology class we were asked to go do a bacteria sample, well actually 2.

1. put your hand on a plate of agar jelly (that is the stuff they grow bacteria on)
2. go to the loo, wipe your bum with loo paper, came out WITHOUT washing your hands, put same hand on agar plate no. 2.

Put both dishes in the incubator, return a few days later and look at the bacteria.

The amount of bacteria on the plate after going to the loo was DRAMATICALLY more.

So, I'm afraid loo roll really doesn't do much.

They did an experimetn with school kids, they made them all wash hands properly as they arrived at school. Then after break (when they had all been to the loo and supposed to have wahsed hands) then before lunch.

The amount of tummy bugs etc going round the school fell dramatically. The overall attendance increased astronomically.
One thing the researchers noticed was that most children needed teachign how to wash their hands properly at the start.