Do you wash your hands correctly?

Recently my wife & I enjoyed soup sampling at ChowdaFest at a middle school in Westport, CT. In the restroom of this public school I saw sign on how to wash your hands, aimed no doubt for the young students. What struck me about the sign was the length of time to wash, sing the Alphabet song twice, it suggested. That means about 20 seconds of hand washing. This is longer than advice I gave a few years ago, sing the Happy Birthday song twice, for about 10 to 15 seconds of washing.

Today we accept hand washing as good hygiene, but this was not always the case. Before germs were discovered and defeated, bad air or demons were blamed for illness. We know better now and yet we still get hand washing wrong.

Here's the right way to wash according to the Mayo Clinic.

• Wet your hands with running water.
• Apply soap.
• Lather well.
• Rub your hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds.
• Remember to scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.
• Rinse well.
• Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel or air dryer.
• If possible, use your towel to turn off the faucet [and open the bathroom door]

Bottom Line

Always wash your hands after:

• Preparing food, especially raw meat
• Using the toilet or changing a diaper
• Touching an animal, animal toys, leashes, or animal waste
• Blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing into your hands
• Treating wounds or caring for a sick or injured person
• Handling garbage, household/garden chemicals, or anything really dirty like soiled shoes

Update: was watching the Tonight Show and guest Tim Allen mentioned handwashing and the Happy Birthday song. Jay responded, with yes, about 21 seconds?

Best Way to Dry Your Hands

"Wouldn't you give your hand to a friend"
- lyrics to Midnight Blue

NewScientist.com has a brief health notice on drying your hands.  Common sense would say that air dryers are cleanest but a medical study has found that For clean hands, don't rub, scrub with a paper towel.

"When you rub your hands, you bring a lot of bacteria to the surface from the pores of your skin," says Anna Snelling of the University of Bradford, UK.

In the study bacteria counts on the hands changed as follows after washing:

Air Dry with hand rubbing - bacteria up 18%
Air Dry without hand rubbing - bacteria down 37%
Drying hands with a paper towel - bacteria down 50%

Bottom Line

Towels work best because they actually scrape off bacteria from the skin.

Hospital Germs

“When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can't be cured.” - Anton Chekhov (Russian playwright)

What is it about doctors and a casual attitude towards germs? I wrote earlier, Did you forget to wash your hands?, about the history of hand washing and how doctors resisted the idea that dirty hands could kill. Now a new study shows that unwashed scrubs can also kill, Hospital Scrubs Are a Germy, Deadly Mess.

Some medical personnel wear the same unlaundered uniforms to work day after day. ... At the University of Maryland, 65% of medical personnel confess they change their lab coat less than once a week, though they know it's contaminated. Fifteen percent admit they change it less than once a month. Superbugs such as staph can live on these polyester coats for up to 56 days.

Bottom Line

Dirty scrubs spread bacteria to patients and, when worn in public, allow superbugs to escape to places like restaurants. Scrub germs can cause extreme diarrhea, dehydration, inflammation of the colon, and even death. They are difficult germs to kill. "Only scrubbing with bleach removed [them]".

In recognition of this problem some hospitals are returning to laundering scrubs and/or prohibiting wearing the scrubs outside the hospital.

Did you forget to wash your hands?

Archimedes, as he was washing, thought of a manner of computing the proportion of gold in King Hiero’s crown by seeing the water flowing over the bathing-stool. He leaped up as one possessed or inspired, crying, “I have found it! Eureka!” - Plutarch (A.D. 46?–A.D. c. 120)

Today it is common knowledge that you should wash your hands before eating and after using the bathroom. It is even required by law for employees who handle food. However this was not always the case.
In the 1840's at the Vienna General Hospital in Austria one in ten mothers died after giving birth from childbed fever. This was a higher rate of death than other hospitals and higher than mothers who gave birth at home with the help of a midwife. Dr Ignac Semmelweis was determined to find a cure. What he discovered in 1847 was the importance of hand washing. Doctors laughed at this idea but interns who followed it found that the occurrence of childbed fever dropped to 1-2%, a five fold improvement! But still the other doctors scoffed at the idea and it took 50 years and the discovery of germ theory before hand washing became common practice in hospitals.
Returning to modern times it is not uncommon to find people who won't bother to wash their hands or wash incorrectly. (Did you know you could be doing it wrong?)

1. Wet hands with warm water
2. Lather hands with vigorous scrubbing to create friction (both friction and soap are necessary)
3. Scrub while counting to at least 15! Some sites recommend singing the "Happy Birthday" song to yourself twice.
4. Rinse hands and dry with a paper towel
5. Use the paper towel to turn off the faucet. Other wise your clean hands could be contaminated by a dirty faucet.
6. I've also noticed many people using the paper towel to open the bathroom door. The door handle is touched by a lot of dirty hands.

Bottom Line
Hand washing is greatly under-rated. So many colds and illness could be prevented by more people washing their hands more often. One of the key recommendations in an article on protecting yourself from bird flu was "Stay Healthy" by "washing your hands regularly".