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Little Known Facts About Handwashing

Handwashing may seem self-explanatory, but some little-known facts and techniques that can help you keep your hands free from germs.

  1. Food Preparation

    • It is generally accepted that you should wash your hands before making food and before eating food, but it is also important to wash during and after food preparation. Especially when working with raw ingredients, improper hygiene can cause bacteria from one food to transfer to another.

    Money

    • Money changes hands more than just about anything, allowing for an inordinate number of germs to hop on for the ride. Proper hygiene is incomplete unless you wash up after handling currency.

    Washing Duration

    • A thorough washing requires time to really scrub all parts of the hands. Scrub long enough to sing "Happy Birthday" twice, instead of just running water over your hands for a few seconds.

    Importance of Washing

    • Twenty-five percent of all food-borne illnesses are transferred through hands that are unwashed or improperly washed.

    Soap vs. Hand Sanitizer

    • Although washing with soap, in the proper manner, should not be discounted, the Center for Disease Control says that alcohol-based hand sanitizers eliminate more bacteria than soap and water.

    Anti-Bacterial vs. Regular Soap

    • There exists a great deal of controversy about whether or not anti-bacterial soap produces resistant strains of bacteria by unnecessarily targeting all bacteria. On one hand, a survey published in 2007 of existing research on the issue headed by Aiello of the University of Michigan found a large body of investigation suggesting that there is a negative impact. On the other hand, an earlier study published in the October 2005 CDC journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, did not find significant bacterial resistance.

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