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
Mimzy and me and Amy
We left Manhattan and our dogs on May 21, but picked up another for the 18 hour drive: a borzoi, or Russian wolf hound, named Mimzy who a friend in Guelph, Ontario, had purchased from its current owner in Manhattan (Kansas).That's Mimzy and me (right). She made the trip, uh, interesting (and should come standard-issue with a drool bucket).
After games of golf, hockey, a committee meeting with Chapman and meals with kids, friends and parents, it was off to Montreal. We're staying in the Latin Quarter, and today wondered through the Notre-Dame Basilica.
This is the bathroom (right) in the Basilica, and like every other public washroom I've visited in Quebec, there was no paper towel. Proper handwashing requires the proper tools, and that includes paper towels.And because this song was played during the beginning of tonight's game 2 of the Detroit-Pittsburgh Stanley Cup finals, here is Stompin' Tom Connors with, The Hockey Song.
Wash your hands and dry with paper towel...
Except when the paper towel dispenser has been lit on fire.According to the Kansas State Collegian today
a fire was started in Aggieville at O’Malley’s Alley on Sunday around 8 p.m. when someone lit the paper towel dispenser in the restroom. If you really hate paper towel that much, it might be safer (although not more sanitary) to use an air dryer (see Doug’s letter to the editor of the Manhattan Mercury posted below). Visit donteatpoop.com for more handwashing information.
**photo is from the K-State Collegian, credited to Steven Doll**
***Letter to the editor***
29.dec.06
Manhattan Mercury
p. A6
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 25 per cent of the 76 million annual cases of foodborne illness in the U.S. could be eliminated with proper handwashing.
Based on the available evidence, proper handwashing consists of:
o wet hands with water;
o use soap;
o lather all over hands by scrubbing vigorously, creating friction, reaching all areas of the hands, wrists and between fingers, and counting to at least fifteen; o rinse hands; and, o dry hands, preferably with paper towel.
The all-in-one handwashing units at the Manhattan Town Center and K-State student union restrooms may be insufficient to control the spread of dangerous microorganisms (Look, Ma, no handles, Manhattan Mercury, Dec. 28/06). The washing time before the hand dryer is activated appears inadequate, as does the drying procedure itself. Any remaining moisture can support bacterial growth, or can limit people from washing their hands in the first place (who wants damp hands?). Anecdotal reports from campus reveal that some find the units inconvenient and that soap sometimes misses hands when being dispensed.
One research study found that average bacterial counts were reduced when towels (either cloth or paper) were used to dry hands, the most significant decrease being with paper towels; hot air dryers produced a highly significant increase in all bacteria on hands.
Another study concluded that dangerous bacteria could survive handwashing with soap and water if hands were not dried thoroughly with paper towels. The friction created when drying hands with paper towel removes additional microorganisms.
Proper handwashing begins with access to proper tools. That is why paper towels are a necessary addition to any public bathroom.
Sincerely,
Doug Powell
Associate Professor
KSU Food Safety Network
1729 Pierre St
785-317-0560
dpowell@ksu.edu
