Prevent the flu by washing your hands!

Good Hands

Roslyn Stone wants you to wash your hands. Right now. Go wash them.

Okay hands clean? You’ll be glad they are after you read this e-Alert.

High five!

Roslyn Stone is the chairwoman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Workplace Flu Prevention Group. So you can imagine why she wants all of us to wash our hands. She told CNN that the most effective way to prevent the flu is to wash your hands “as frequently as you can remember to do it.” And don’t just rinse and run. Ms. Stone calls for 20 seconds of hand washing with soap and hot water.

When hands aren’t clean, infection is easily spread. So who’s washing their hands, and who’s not? Last year, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) commissioned a market research firm to conduct a hand-washing study and a telephone survey.

In the study, researchers observed hand-washing habits of more than 6,300 adults in several public settings, such as Atlanta’s Turner Field and New York City’s Grand Central Station. The results: Overall, 83 percent washed their hands. Among women, 90 percent washed up, while only 75 percent of all the men scrubbed their hands.

And apparently something about a sports event makes most men forget about hygiene. During a game at Turner Field, less than 40 percent of the men washed hands, while 84 percent of the women washed theirs.

Guys, please forgive me if I don’t give you a high five at the next game I attend.

Someone’s fibbin’

In the ASM/SDA telephone survey, researchers interviewed more than 1,000 subjects. When the results of the survey were matched against the study results, it became clear that someone was fudging the truth a bit. I guess the men in this survey must not have been Atlanta baseball fans – 96 percent told surveyors they always or usually wash their hands after using public facilities. Among the women, 97 percent said they always or usually wash.

Other results:

• 83 percent said they always wash hands after using the bathroom at home
• 77 percent said they always wash before eating or handling food
• 21 percent said they always wash after handling money
• 42 percent said they always wash after petting an animal
• 73 percent said they always wash after changing a diaper

One in four don’t wash after changing a diaper! Don’t they realize what’s in those things?

Of course, one of the easiest ways to spread illness is to politely use your hand to cover a sneeze or cough, and then NOT wash your hands. But less than 40 percent of women say they wash after putting a hand over a sneeze or cough, while only 24 percent of men do the same. No wonder the flu spreads like wildfire.

Sources:
“Don’t Get Caught Dirty Handed” Brian Sansoni, The Soap and Detergent Association, washup.org
“Is Your Desk Making You Sick?” David Williams, CNN, 12/13/04, cnn.com
“Bird Flu Redux” Jon Barron, Baseline of Health, 9/26/05, jonbarron.org