Wednesday, January 27, 2010

clean hands, not such a nice heart

Attention- much sarcasm and some snark ahead- proceed with caution

Yesterday I saw something that made me want to grab a head and shake it just to see if there were any brains occupying the space inside...

My cute friend Emily wrote a post about washing hands, it made me overly observant as I was out and about yesterday, the consequences were grave.

In the Restroom at Target:
Mom- to daughter - "you don't need to wash you hands in here, I have hand sanitizer"

Smarty Pants (in my head) "No, there is no way a mother just instructed her child to NOT wash hands. What kind of mother does this? That is beyond disgusting, you eat with those hands people"

At an office building: Lady walks out of restroom, without washing hands, stops at automatic hand sanitizer dispenser and then goes on her merry, disgusting way.

So just to get it off my chest: HAND SANITIZER IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR HAND WASHING, AND NEVER WILL BE!!!

I will now try to calmly explain why hand sanitizer is not a substitute for hand washing:

The hand sanitizer that you (being the general public) can purchase is alcohol based. you know, the rubbing kind. In order for alcohol to kill micro-organisms (specifically the kind you don't want on your hands) it must be on the surface, wet, for 72 hours. Yes you read correctly, 72 hours.

Hand washing, on the other hand-all puns intended-doesn't kill micro-organisms really, but it does send them right down the drain with the soap and water. Not the good ones that are on your skin all of the time, nestled in your fingerprint grooves. No no, washing gets rid of the transient micro-organisms, the kind that cause illness-read hepatitis C or something equally terrifying.

Hopefully that cleared up any lingering misconceptions about the use of hand sanitizer when you could wash your hands.

There I feel so much better

*nothing against using hand sanitizer when no other option is available, just not as a primary means for hand cleanliness. also hospitals use a different type, especially when there isn't a sink in the room and according to the CDC "it's safe" I'm not sure if I buy it, but there is the information for you to decide for yourself


5 comments:

  1. hey! i meant to tag you at my blog with the 10 things that make you happy! so now i'm tagging you! :) sorry i didn't before.

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  2. Gross. As for me, I am a dedicated hand washer! (I promise.)

    =)

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  3. see what i mean, only 20% tell the truth!!! i'll be that woman would have raised her hand and said, yes, i wash! liar! loved the info you gave about how it washes them down the drain, not killing them. very informative. missed you swimming. it was just andrea and i. entire pool to ourselves. and i swam fast! like 12 min for 500! you would have been so proud:-)

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  4. Jess you are so awesome! I struggle so much when I see someone leave the bathroom without washing. I am so bad about it that I will actually stop and wash my hands even if I only went in the stall to fix my stockings or slip, and didn't do any "business". Because I still had to touch the door knobs, etc.

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