Hand Washing Redux

FROM: jk
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 11:23:56 am

Said the cowboy: "Washin' hands is fer sissies!"

FROM: Cat [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 11:37:13 am

Say you're at your desk, and the bathroom is a public one. You touch the door, and possibly a handle, just to get in. For women, we're also using our hands to close a stall. So you've spread and picked up germs right there. Then you finish, wash, and *touch the door again*. And no, I'm not really interested in using a paper towel to open the thing.

So I guess I'm missing the point.

Wouldn't it be smarter to have wipes at your desk (or in a pocket), and use them before and after you go to the restroom?

And another hand-washing question entirely: how many Pingers ride the bus? It's taken a while, but I've finally gotten in the habit of not touching my face from the time I get on the bus until I have a chance to wash my hands.

FROM: Chris [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 11:45:45 am

This obsession with hand washing with antibacterial soaps is slowing creating a super bacteria that will kill us all. You just wait...

FROM: Cat [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 12:19:53 pm

Ack! Antibacterial soaps! NOOOO!

Man, it took forever to find a liquid soap for home that wasn't antibacterial.

FROM: Paul
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 12:36:39 pm

I actually can't find one, Cat. What'd you get?

That said, I do realize that I can't avoid all germs. But I can deal with some of them - post-bathroom, unclean hand germs, I can't.

Unclean! Unclean!!!

FROM: Cat [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 1:09:08 pm

Paul--

Ivory liquid soap is just soap, bless 'em. Also, Purell liquid hand sanitizer just has alcohol in it--no other special antibacterial agent. Hard on the hands, but not likely to make supergerms.

FROM: Cat [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 1:28:45 pm

I forgot--you can also get liquid soaps without triclosan at places like The Body Shop, if you're willing to spend the moolah.

FROM: Ryan [E-Mail]
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 1:49:00 pm

I'm going to reiterate my comment from the previous hand-washing Ping, with a little extra emphasis:

I'm also appalled at non-hand-washers, Paul, especially at work (hopefully none of my co-worker Pingers are guilty of this). One time, I walked into the bathroom and a guy walked from the urinal right past me, without even *pretending* to wash his hands.

Seriously, guys, like Matt Wilson used to say: why must you spread your d all over the place?

I'm also not a germaphobe, but good Lord, if you don't wash your hands after using the bathroom, when *do* you wash your hands?

And, Dave, I'll forgive you for that 1 time out of 100. Just be sure to wash if I ever have to open the door after you.

For the ladies in the audience: is this a problem in your restroom as well?

FROM: Greg
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 2:28:49 pm

I rather not touch the remnants of someone's dinner from last night on a bathoroom door handle. Is that too much to ask?

I want the doors they have at the supermarket on all bathrooms. That way, it's like there's an invisible bathroom attendant opening the door for you.

FROM: Paul
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 2:41:00 pm

Thanks for the tips, Cat.

By the way, I must say that one of my favorite things in the bathroom is the motion-sensing paper towel dispenser. That's the best use of motion-sensing technology yet, I say. (Auto-faucets and toilets are lame.)

FROM: jk
DATE: Friday January 16, 2004 -- 4:42:26 pm

Women are surprisingly guilty of not washing their hands as well. At work (remember I am the Retail Guru and we have a public restroom), I have witnessed little kids not wash their hands, in fact, I have scolded some of them (HA!) and made them wash up, but I have also seen women whom I think are "educated" walk out w/o washing. EW! I use the paper towel trick to open the door.

Bath and Body makes a line of products called Cucumber and Green Tea, and I bet they have a liquid soap. I have the candles, and they smell good enough to eat.

FROM: Dave Walls [E-Mail]
DATE: Saturday January 17, 2004 -- 2:11:53 am

I still wouldnt wash my hands at Veterans Stadium, but that isnt much of a problem anymore. ;)

FROM: Codeman
DATE: Tuesday August 3, 2004 -- 10:04:43 pm

Ok some info for everyone, urine is an ultrafiltrated of the body, mostly contains ammonia. I keep myself clean down there so why this obsession on washing afterwards. What i do is wash before hand and use a papertowel on the door handle on the way out. Going to do number 2 however is an entirely diffenet story, hepatitis.

FROM: Ryan [E-Mail]
DATE: Wednesday August 4, 2004 -- 8:38:22 am

I keep myself clean down there

For the sake of the rest of us, don't make us take your word for it. Just wash your damn hands.

FROM: Codeman
DATE: Friday August 6, 2004 -- 12:30:38 pm

I wash my hands for me. Not for you. I dont touch anything you touch, so no, I wont wash my damn hands. Are you the hand police? Since I work in a lab I wash my hands plenty. Wash your hands like your obsessive compulsive disorder tells you to and leave alone.

FROM: Paul
DATE: Friday August 6, 2004 -- 1:55:35 pm

Wash your hands like your obsessive compulsive disorder tells you to and leave alone.

Sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays!

FROM: Ryan [E-Mail]
DATE: Saturday August 7, 2004 -- 8:05:55 am

Since I work in a lab...

Oh, great -- someone's getting crotch all over the petrii dishes. At least now we know who it is.

FROM: Codeman
DATE: Saturday August 7, 2004 -- 2:35:06 pm

Oh look, someone is a comedian and cant read what my posts say. Have fun.

FROM: Paul
DATE: Saturday August 7, 2004 -- 2:53:24 pm

So, Codeman, why so angry? Wanting to wash your hands of the situation?

FROM: Roy
DATE: Tuesday August 17, 2004 -- 11:03:21 am

I find that when people say they keep themselves clean "down there" that they are really trying to convince other people. These are the same people you see licking hand rails at amusement parks then trying to kiss you all the while announcing that they use mouth wash. These people are usually victims of having no parental guidance in establishing good overall hygiene. This is where a stanger has to step in and tell you the obvious. Wash your hands after touching yourself in the bathroom.

FROM: Joseph
DATE: Tuesday August 17, 2004 -- 11:56:30 am

You don't need to wash yourself after touching yourself down there if you're just doing number one. Your hands are getting "down there" dirty from touching the bathroom door. The reason you need to wash your hands is because you touched the toilet handle or the sink fixture. It's also a good reminder to wash your hands when you go to the bathroom because you go to the bathroom a few times a day. Your hands just from making contact with your environment get really really dirty. Where's your thingy? It's safely sealed inside clean underwear--it's not getting dirty.
If anything, to be extra clean, you should wash your hands first, to keep your thingy clean, and then, wash your hands after because the faucet and the toilet are gross.

Tasty tidbit. Everyone thinks the toilet is dirty so they clean it obsessively. Recently some scientists checked the amount of germs on surfaces around the home. Guess what came out the cleanest? If you said terlet, you're right--followed by the bathroom sink. These items only had a few hundred germs per square inch. What was dirtiest? The phone. 40,000 germs p.s.i. The computer keyboard was next.

Bleccchhhh.

I bet the type of germs on the toilet seat are worse, though. I have to believe somehow that the toilet is more dangerous than the telephone.

FROM: Ryan [E-Mail]
DATE: Tuesday August 17, 2004 -- 4:19:13 pm

Except for those of us that sit on our telephones.