Thought this might be of interest;
Scientists have found that rubbing your hands together whilst drying them under a hot air drier increases the risk of spreading contaminating bacteria. They conclude that the safest way of drying your hands is with paper towels or using those new driers which don't require hand-rubbing.
Unfortunately you may have to use ear defenders whilst using the new driers
Full story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... -warn.html
Jules
Handwashing/drying
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Re: Handwashing/drying
what a load of old tosh they print in the papers... must be a quiet news day, stolen budgies, american religious nutters, and the dangers of drying your hands.
If it isn't broken, that doesn't mean you can't improve it. (Do three negatives make a positive ?)
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Re: Handwashing/drying
This demonstrates the ignorance and lack of understanding which is prevalent in a large proportion of the population. You can see this in the number of people using public toilets and leaving without washing their hands.load of old tosh
Many infections can be spread as a result of inadequate handwashing/drying. These include respiratory infections such as flu, gastric infections such as Norovirus and Helicobacter (the cause of gastric ulcers) and skin and wound infections such as MRSA.
Some of these infections will be trivial, but others will be much more devastating causing lost workdays at best and serious illness and even death at worst.
‘Aha’ I can hear you say ‘this does not apply to me and the workforce I am responsible for because we don’t work with these nasty bugs’. But consider whether are any of your staff are;
- involved in food preparation
- particularly at risk of infection due to existing illness or pregnancy
- cleaners especially of bathrooms
- handling waste materials
- working in potentially contaminated environments, eg drains
- working with children or animals
Also consider the economic cost to your business. The Confederation of British Industry annual survey of absence and labour turnover in 2002 showed that time lost due to absence was on average 6.8 days per employee (5.5 days for non-manual workers and 8.4 days for manual workers) and the average cost of absence per employee was estimated to be £476; equivalent to a cost to UK business as a whole of £11.6 billion. Genuine minor illnesses were believed to be the major cause of absence.
Now only some of these will be due to infections, but think about how many of your staff absences are due to coughs and cold or diarrhoea and vomiting.
Jules
Mostly harmless, good with cats
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Re: Handwashing/drying
Jules I understand perfectly well, and I'm happy to report that I do wash my hands, however how this stuff makes the national press with over the top reaction is beyond me. If we can't stop asbestos exposure, or outbreaks of chrypto speridium in the drinking water supply, or legionnaire's disease, why would we worry about hand dryers.
As you accurately pointed out the real problem is not so much with hand driers, as with people who don't wash their hands and therefor don't come into the hand drier equation.
None of my staff work in any of the areas you specify, but they do go to the toilet and hopefully wash their hands afterward, although I must admit I don't have them sign a form so don't have a record.
My job is to keep them from harm caused by risks they wouldn't encounter at home, where they are bringing up children, preparing food, maybe looking after pets. The hygiene risks at home are much greater than they are at work (except perhaps in healthcare and sewage work) so I consider this silly headline about hand dryers to be a load of old tosh.
Personally I consider that putting 30 children in a room with a variety of of them producing airborn bacteria of various types every time they cough, sneeze, pick their nose is the major cause of spreading viral infections, so rather than worrying about hand driers perhaps we should do something about sick kids going to school and sick adults going to work in their open plan offices.
Yes let's all wsh our hands after going to the toilet, preferably without touching the soap dispenser (another piece of marketing nonsense), that way after taking all that time and trouble washing our hands and drying them in some ultrahygeinic way all that good work won't be undone when we touch the doorknob of the room, or shake hands with someone.
I wonder how we all survived this long with so many dangerous nasty infections waiting to kill us. Must be that wonderful immune system nearly all of us have.
It's gratifying to see that despite all of our efforts at having a sterile environment, we have an ever increasing occurence of allergies and asthma in our population whereas in populations where they keep the livestock in the next room of their house (with all the nightmarish repercusions of animal excrement) asthma and allergies are very rare indeed. Perhaps the human immune system needs to have something to work on to prevent it over reacting and causing allergic reactions to things which are mostly harmless such as peanuts, latex, pollen, and animals.
Incidentally it's also good practice to wash your hands on the way into the toilet so that you don't spread things from your hands to other parts of your body... especially in the healthcare industry and if you've been cutting up chilli peppers (apparently)
As you accurately pointed out the real problem is not so much with hand driers, as with people who don't wash their hands and therefor don't come into the hand drier equation.
None of my staff work in any of the areas you specify, but they do go to the toilet and hopefully wash their hands afterward, although I must admit I don't have them sign a form so don't have a record.
My job is to keep them from harm caused by risks they wouldn't encounter at home, where they are bringing up children, preparing food, maybe looking after pets. The hygiene risks at home are much greater than they are at work (except perhaps in healthcare and sewage work) so I consider this silly headline about hand dryers to be a load of old tosh.
Personally I consider that putting 30 children in a room with a variety of of them producing airborn bacteria of various types every time they cough, sneeze, pick their nose is the major cause of spreading viral infections, so rather than worrying about hand driers perhaps we should do something about sick kids going to school and sick adults going to work in their open plan offices.
Yes let's all wsh our hands after going to the toilet, preferably without touching the soap dispenser (another piece of marketing nonsense), that way after taking all that time and trouble washing our hands and drying them in some ultrahygeinic way all that good work won't be undone when we touch the doorknob of the room, or shake hands with someone.
I wonder how we all survived this long with so many dangerous nasty infections waiting to kill us. Must be that wonderful immune system nearly all of us have.
It's gratifying to see that despite all of our efforts at having a sterile environment, we have an ever increasing occurence of allergies and asthma in our population whereas in populations where they keep the livestock in the next room of their house (with all the nightmarish repercusions of animal excrement) asthma and allergies are very rare indeed. Perhaps the human immune system needs to have something to work on to prevent it over reacting and causing allergic reactions to things which are mostly harmless such as peanuts, latex, pollen, and animals.
Incidentally it's also good practice to wash your hands on the way into the toilet so that you don't spread things from your hands to other parts of your body... especially in the healthcare industry and if you've been cutting up chilli peppers (apparently)
If it isn't broken, that doesn't mean you can't improve it. (Do three negatives make a positive ?)
Re: Handwashing/drying
Hand dryers in most places I work may as well not be there. Most people stand there for a short while rubbing their hands in the pathetic stream of lukewarm air before giving up and wiping them on their trousers on the way out.
When in danger, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
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Re: Handwashing/drying
Not that I am in anyway cynical but seeing the article mentions a particular brand I wonder who funded the 'research'
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Re: Handwashing/drying
They say that there is more bacteria on an average keyboard or telephone handset than there is in a toilet.
I think that infection control needs to be in perspective - i agree that we need to encourage handwashing and drying but what do we bring into the office on our shoes that gets walked into the carpet and maybe cleaned once a week. What about the dishwasher or microwave in the staff restroom which are not cleaned out. How many have a shared fridge at work that is somewhat "dirty". How about the lazy worker who always leaves dirty cups lying around for someone else to wash up.
All we can do is keep plugging at it and trying to educate people about hygiene across all aspects of the places we work and not just toilets.
Regards
Dave
I think that infection control needs to be in perspective - i agree that we need to encourage handwashing and drying but what do we bring into the office on our shoes that gets walked into the carpet and maybe cleaned once a week. What about the dishwasher or microwave in the staff restroom which are not cleaned out. How many have a shared fridge at work that is somewhat "dirty". How about the lazy worker who always leaves dirty cups lying around for someone else to wash up.
All we can do is keep plugging at it and trying to educate people about hygiene across all aspects of the places we work and not just toilets.
Regards
Dave