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Habits are hard to break. Why not start washing your hands correctly?

By on December 3, 2019

We all know people wash their hands, but did you know that a study says only 5 percent of people do it the right way ?

A few doctors in Japan I asked say washing the hands is a standard hygienic routine in their profession. One surgeon who sees a lot of patients every day say,  “I scrub my hands thoroughly before and after examining patients and in-between procedures. I must be doing 50 hand washes on a typical day.”

In the mid 19th century, when it wasn’t a standard routine for doctors, nurses and midwives diagnosing pregnant women t0 wash their hands, the incidence of postpartum infections called childbed fever and bacterial infections (often fatal) of the female reproductive tract (after childbirth or miscarriage), became very common.

Hungarian doctor and scientist Dr. Semmelweiss Igners discovered in 1847 that the mortality rate  could be drastically cut by washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions. The practice resulted in a mortality rate of less than 1%. Semmelweiss’s practice gained widespread acceptance years after his death when French biologist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur validated it with his germ theory of diseases. 

Half a century later, Dr. Isaac Yang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, has been pointing out to students that a significant number of people do not wash their hands at all or do so very quickly. According to a research on the toilet habits of university students, 63% wash their hands but 38% don’t use soap. In addition, 32% of those who use soap only do so for 5 to 10 seconds with only 2% more than 10 seconds.  He says, “If no one is watching,  this 63% is reduced to 55%. This means that 45% do not wash their hands at all.”

What’s the correct way of washing the hands?

Washing the hands correctly will bring you one step ahead of most people in terms of cleanliness. It takes less than 30 seconds to clean your hands. It is important to wash with clean running water. Rub plenty of soap (any soap is OK) all over your hands,  fingers and back of the hands for about 20-30 seconds. Rinse with clean running water and wipe them with a clean towel at all times.

When doing manual things such as wound care or cooking, Dr. Yang recommends further washing from the wrist up to the elbow.

When to give your hands a good wash according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

  • Before, during, and after preparing food
  • Before eating food
  • Before and after caring for someone at home who is sick with vomiting or diarrhea
  • Before and after treating a cut or wound
  • After using the toilet
  • After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
  • After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
  • After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
  • After handling pet food or pet treats
  • After touching garbage
washing hands under faucet

When there is no time to wash many times a day or when there is no sink nearby, Dr. Yang recommends using alcohol-based (containing at least 60% alcohol) hand sanitizers. “These products are 99% as effective as washing hands. It disinfects your hands in 5 seconds.”

Some of those commercially available contain a mix of moisturizing ingredients and alcohol which shouldn’t be drying to the skin. Caution: Alcohol-based hand sanitizers do not kill spores of infectious diarrhea called Clostridium difficile infection, so they are ineffective for heavily soiled hands.

 

Read also: How to make your own sanitizing gel

About Samantha Green