February 26, 2004

• a few years ago I worked in an office that was pretty evenly split 50/50 between men and women. One day the office manager observed that the soap in the men's room seemed to last three times as long as the soap in the ladies' room. On the other hand, my boyfriend did public health work in Northeastern Brazil a while back and has a cholera awareness poster from his time there. The caption reads, roughly translated, "While you are sitting there waiting, your life is running away from you." He has it framed and posted on the wall directly facing the toilet. We both use plenty of soap.
• I work in a fancy schmancy office building that has a senator, a local golf course owner mogul and a few other assorted gazillionaires, none of whom wash their hands. It is so bad that my officemates and I now comment on it when we se someone who does stop to wash. So I can believe this study, despite how non-scientific it is.
• Shep, I so want to know who that senator is. You'd think with all the political hand-shaking... *shudder* Never mind.
• I'm not so certain that one can make the conclusion that the "coats & ties" are upper class and the "jeans & t-shirts" are lower class... clearly they all enjoy the symphony so their upbringing and culture may all be pretty similar. I'd like to see this study extended to a much broader demographic such as restrooms in malls, travel centers, and perhaps even a public bathroom at the city's welfare department. Then we'll be able to make some comparisions. All I can tell from this is that a lot of people don't wash their hands, which isn't really new news.
• but timmus, you can get your very own laminated hand-washing poster, in which "the names of disease germs surround the hand with a brief description of how they can harm you." perfect for any festive gift-giving occasion!
• I always try to wash my hands, but it seems kind of futile when I think of the hundreds of dirty-handed people have grabbed the bathroom doorknob before me.
• Someone I knew at college would take a wad of that paper you dry your hands with and use it to turn the knob, then throw the paper away after leaving the bathroom. I'd call them obsessive, except I totally understand why they do it.
• My dogs lick my face. My dogs lick their own asses. I have bigger problems to worry about than handwashing.
• since i live a couple of hundred miles from toronto...OMG - SARS...last year became quite an education in handwashing. a simple trip to the doctor's office or any health related site, required washing your hands in disinfectant and then filling in questionaires before one could even get in the door. this went on for months after the final all-clear was given. if you had been to toronto, forget it...you couldn't get into the door at all for awhile. myself and a lot of people concede it has now become a more regular habit to wash hands and use caution even in use of taps and door handles in public washrooms. of course, being one of those psychiatric people who occasionally goes on handwashing binges, it was a bit problematic for me as i was worried that i would go off into compulsion washing again...thankfully not! i still may not be a perfectionist about it, but i certainly think carefully about the locale of public washrooms anymore when using them and whether to beat a quick exit or pause to wash. and now i even carry a small container of instant dissolving hand wash with me for emergency scenarios, if i'm sure there may be a chance of random viruses. hospitals are the worse source of germs and illnesses possible, although it seems only the UK are public about their state. my elderly neighbour just died a few weeks ago from a viral infection he picked up while in the hospital for surgery. the surgery was a success....the recovery period did him in!
• It's funny, my son (23 months)will put the dog toys in his mouth and I don't care. But we go into a Walmart (grudgingly) and I am all over the kids about making sure they aren't putting their hands to nose/mouth. They get a good rubdown with wipes in the car afterward. And the doctors office/hospital, well, then they get sprayed down with disinfectant. My daughter goes to school and we all end up on antibiotics. What's the point, really.