Wash your Hands!

[bizzle]

It is interesting to observe when you are in public toilets & the amount of women who leave without washing their hands.

 

It makes me want to gip because I suddenly get OCD when I see someone who has not washed their hands & then has touched the door handle that I have leave out of!argggghhghghgh! I will not touch the door that until someone else has opened it & I like speedy gonzalez make a dash for the entrance before the door clothes.

 

I know it is unfair for me to do that but I ain't having no scrubber's germs on my hands especially when I have made a damn good effort in washing my own hands. It is hardly rocket science but it is interesting as to how ignorant people can be with the simplest logic.

[shane39]

Yes but there aren't many places (outside the home) that have the taps anymore, there all those no-touch sensor things now, even the soap dispensers are motion controlled, also most lavs are self flushing too now, don't have to touch a thing, except to open the door to get out, someone will have to invent something to do that for us

 

They will also have to come up with an idea for pulling ya kegs back up,zippin ya fly and fastening ya belt,(after squatting on the bog and releasing little brown fish)

[*Peaches*]

I saw this advertised just now and HAD to post it!!

 

http://www.dettol.co.uk/no-touch-handwash-system/how_it_works/easy_to_use.php

 

[Treatment]

Oy. I use cubicles to avoid urinal splashback.

 

Many thanks for sharing that, you have put me right off my elevenses.

[boyfriday]

Yes but there aren't many places (outside the home) that have the taps anymore, there all those no-touch sensor things now, even the soap dispensers are motion controlled, also most lavs are self flushing too now, don't have to touch a thing, except to open the door to get out, someone will have to invent something to do that for us

 

..doesn't your yardboy hold the door open for you popps??

[mediman]

Whats even more annoying is having washed your hands you then have to touch the door handle to get out!

 

Simple, just do what i do , use a paper towel to open the door and then throw it in the nearest rubbish bin.

[Alcoblog]

Not being funny here but don't you think you can take cleanliness too far? I'm sure I read somewhere that people catch diseases (or illnesses) as their bodies haven't developed the antibodies to fight germs due to them being too clean. Obviously its a good idea to keep clean but not to a point of being fanatical about it.(OCD?) Personally I don't worry about touching door handles, taps etc in public places ... there are much easier ways to catch germs ... just sit in a doctors waiting room !

[medusa]

Not being funny here but don't you think you can take cleanliness too far? I'm sure I read somewhere that people catch diseases (or illnesses) as their bodies haven't developed the antibodies to fight germs due to them being too clean. Obviously its a good idea to keep clean but not to a point of being fanatical about it.(OCD?) Personally I don't worry about touching door handles, taps etc in public places ... there are much easier ways to catch germs ... just sit in a doctors waiting room !

 

I'm completely aware of the 'too clean makes you ill' theory, and indeed I'm a proponent of it.

 

However, the bacteria that I'm happy to be exposed to are normal commensal flora, generally harmless bacteria which are around us and which aren't normally thought of as pathogens. I'm not happy being exposed to someone else's enteric flora without my permission in exactly the same way as I'd be pretty upset if someone walked up to me and coughed in my face.

 

I spent my time in the lab doing mammalian DNA work, which is like an exercise in paranoia. You gown up, wash your hands, put on two pairs of sterile gloves (some chemicals can get through one paid) and then wash your hands again in case you've contaminated the outside of the gloves putting them on. You then spend the whole day using tissues on every surface to make sure that you're not picking up any skin acids or enzymes which could contaminate your samples, because some enzymes even survive being boiled and you don't want to contaminate anything and risk screwing up your experiment.

 

Real life isn't like that unless you've got OCD, but I'd like to pick and choose which microorganisms I ingest thank you.

[Alcoblog]

I'm completely aware of the 'too clean makes you ill' theory, and indeed I'm a proponent of it.

 

However, the bacteria that I'm happy to be exposed to are normal commensal flora, generally harmless bacteria which are around us and which aren't normally thought of as pathogens. I'm not happy being exposed to someone else's enteric flora without my permission in exactly the same way as I'd be pretty upset if someone walked up to me and coughed in my face.

 

I spent my time in the lab doing mammalian DNA work, which is like an exercise in paranoia. You gown up, wash your hands, put on two pairs of sterile gloves (some chemicals can get through one paid) and then wash your hands again in case you've contaminated the outside of the gloves putting them on. You then spend the whole day using tissues on every surface to make sure that you're not picking up any skin acids or enzymes which could contaminate your samples, because some enzymes even survive being boiled and you don't want to contaminate anything and risk screwing up your experiment.

 

Real life isn't like that unless you've got OCD, but I'd like to pick and choose which microorganisms I ingest thank you.

 

I realise it's very important in some instances to work in very sterile surroundings ... lab work (as you mention), electronics etc.

I realise you're far more qualified than me to comment on this subject .... ( jeez! ... As I'm typing this there's an ad on telly for 'Dettol no touch hand wash system' ... synchronicity or what!) ... so I've just read about commensal and enteric flora. I'm obviously wrong here but I get the impression that enteric flora plays an essential role in the development of the immune system. Surely these are the gut bacteria that people are so fastidiously trying to remove from their hands?

Commensal flora seem to be some sort of parasites (like mistletoe?) which benefit the host. I'm more confused now as to why it's so necessary to be so fastidiously clean in normal everyday life. Don't get me wrong ...I'm not trying to pick spots ...I'm genuinely interested

[medusa]

I realise it's very important in some instances to work in very sterile surroundings ... lab work (as you mention), electronics etc.

I realise you're far more qualified than me to comment on this subject .... ( jeez! ... As I'm typing this there's an ad on telly for 'Dettol no touch hand wash system' ... synchronicity or what!) ... so I've just read about commensal and enteric flora. I'm obviously wrong here but I get the impression that enteric flora plays an essential role in the development of the immune system. Surely these are the gut bacteria that people are so fastidiously trying to remove from their hands?

Commensal flora seem to be some sort of parasites (like mistletoe?) which benefit the host. I'm more confused now as to why it's so necessary to be so fastidiously clean in normal everyday life. Don't get me wrong ...I'm not trying to pick spots ...I'm genuinely interested

 

Commensals are what colonise natural and healthy bodies. We live with billions of bacteria on and in every surface of our bodies which is in contact with the outside world and the vast majority of us never have any problems with them. There are certain times and diseases which obviously are an exception to this (things like suffering with HIV, when having chemotherapy or immunosuppressant therapy etc) but in ordinary life not only are commensals healthy, but they also play a really important part in keeping the nasties (pathogens, bacteria which are likely to harm us) at bay.

 

We all have our own commensals and my commensals are not dangerous to me, but you have a different set of commensals and so my commensals could harm you, just like your commensals could harm me. The same applies to bacteria, viruses and fungi which your body lives with and has already got into a balance with- the important thing is the balance.

 

So for instance, C difficile is a pathogen which kills thousands of people a year. However, it's almost always present in the human gut and for the vast majority of people it causes no problems at all unless ingested (when it causes stomach upsets). When it causes serious problems is when the natural gut flora are upset by repeated use of antibiotics which kill natural flora but not the C difficile. The absence of other flora allows the C difficile to run rampant and that is what is so dangerous.

 

One of the treatments for C difficile which is being trialled in Canada as a last ditch treatment to prevent C difficile killing a patient is to give that patient a rectal bacteria infusion of normal gut flora and this at the moment seems to be a far more effective treatment than any antibiotic which has been tried. The healthy gut flora is taken from a close relative of the patient so it's likely that the flora that they carry in their gut is the least likely to make the patient even more sick.

 

A similar story applies to thrush (sorry, women's bits talk coming up). Thrush (Candida albicans) is pretty much an omnipresent thing in most women's vaginal swabs, but it's usually only a problem when the natural flora are interrupted. You ask any woman and they'll tell you that they get thrush after any infection for which they have antibiotics. What has happened is that the natural flora which cause the membrane surface to remain acidic is interrupted, allowing both the space and the change in pH for Candida to grow.

 

So there's one aim of maintaining a balance, but at the same time you have to understand that sometimes if you meet someone else's commensals that can make you very sick indeed. Escherichia coli is a gut bacterium, but someone else's E coli or the wrong type of E coli (or even the standard type in the wrong place) can kill people by causing multiple organ failure.

 

At the same time you have out and out pathogens which can kill, like certain types of Salmonella (ingested), Clostridium tetani (pushed through your skin with a rose thorn or nai, for instance, to give tetanus), Shigella (ingested), Clostridium perfringens (in a wound, causing gas gangrene) etc etc.

 

Sorry for rambling, but what I really want to say about hand cleaning is this:

 

Commensals are fine where they're meant to be, but that means that your gut flora should stay in your gut, not on your hands where they can end up on my hands and cause a nasty infection for me.

 

EDIT- and forgot to say, the same applies to your other commensals, be they sinus, oral or wherever.