Obama says - dude, wash hands to contain swine flu
When asked about swine flu – oh, sorry, the H1N1 flu – U.S. President Barack Obama said during his prime-time 100-day press commencement conference that handwashing and staying at home if sick were key to controlling any potential spread of flu.
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As we’ve said, proper handwashing with the proper tools -- soap, water and paper towel -- can significantly reduce the number of foodborne and other illnesses, even the emerging swine flu.
The steps in proper handwashing, as concluded from the preponderance of available evidence, are:
• wet hands with vigorously flowing water;
• use enough soap to build a good lather;
• scrub hands vigorously, creating friction and reaching all areas of the fingers and hands for at least 10 seconds to loosen pathogens on the fingers and hands;
• rinse hands with thorough amounts of water while continuing to rub hands; and
• dry hands vigorously with paper towel.
If any of the tools for handwashing are missing, let someone know.
However, even with reminders and access to the proper tools, not everyone will practice good hygiene. Those signs that say, ‘Employees Must Wash Hands’ don’t always work. We’re working in settings like high schools and hospitals to figure out the best way to not only tell people to wash their hands, but to use new media and messages to really compel individuals to wash their hands.
A video is available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piwl-Mfwc_s
and a poster at
http://fsninfosheets.blogspot.com/2008/02/dude-wash-your-hands.html.
Burger King: Paper towels in the bathroom please
I have been working for Doug for almost 4 months now. I am happy to say that I have learned a lot.
One of these things is proper hand-washing. So every time I go to a public restroom I keep my eyes open and watch every detail.
I often notice when someone skips the hand-washing step or someone who doesn’t dry up afterwards.
Just the other day I went during my lunch break to Burger King to grab a double cheeseburger. I went to the restroom first, and when I was in one of the stalls, a woman came in with her kid, telling him to scrub his hands. I heard water running. Then they just left - but I didn’t hear any paper tearing.
Well, there wasn’t any. No, BK didn’t just run out of paper. They didn’t have a paper towel dispenser at all. Only a drier. And a very lousy one. The evidence:
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BK employees should not only wash their hands, but dry them as well.
Frustrated I left, and hesitated: Can I still eat my burger, knowing that employees (or at least the women) don’t dry their hands properly in that establishment?
No more BK cheeseburgers for me. Doug wrote in a letter:
Blow dryers should not be used because they accumulate microorganisms from toilet aerosols, and can cause contamination of hands as they are dried by the drier (Knights, et al., 1993; Redway,et al., 1994).
Every bathroom should have running water, soap and paper towel.
Check out this other BK incidence: Restaurant sinks are not bathtubs
