Cold water is fine for washing hands - soap and vigor are the critical components
“Hot water for handwashing has not been proved to remove germs better than cold water.”
That’s the conclusion of The Claim column in tomorrow’s N.Y. Times science section.
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We’ve been saying for a couple of years that water temperature is not a critical factor -- water hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses would scald hands -- so use whatever is comfortable. Warmer water may be better at removing oils and stuff, but not the things that make people sick.
The Times story says,
In its medical literature, the Food and Drug Administration states that hot water comfortable enough for washing hands is not hot enough to kill bacteria, but is more effective than cold water because it removes oils from the hand that can harbor bacteria.
But in a 2005 report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, scientists with the Joint Bank Group/Fund Health Services Department pointed out that in studies in which subjects had their hands contaminated, and then were instructed to wash and rinse with soap for 25 seconds using water with temperatures ranging from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 120 degrees, the various temperatures had “no effect on transient or resident bacterial reduction.”
They found no evidence that hot water had any benefit, and noted that it might increase the “irritant capacity” of some soaps, causing contact dermatitis.
“Temperature of water used for hand washing should not be guided by antibacterial effects but comfort,” they wrote, “which is in the tepid to warm temperature range. The usage of tepid water instead of hot water also has economic benefits.”
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Can you wash your hands too much?
I’ve spent the summer on the east coast alongside my classmate Stephan, while we do internships for school. Though we have similar interests in veterinary medicine, we have very different philosophies about food s
afety. I am a bit like Monk, at times going overboard on cleanliness and my tendency to be a “germaphobe” with excessive handwashing.
Stephan represents the other side of the spectrum, more of a “the more bugs I’m exposed to, the more my immunity builds.” This is definitely a valid viewpoint. Hand sanitizer opponents say that antibacterial soaps and gels may cause more harm than good. They remove bad bacteria, but can also remove the good bacteria, the bacteria that protect skin surfaces from the bad bacteria. Antibacterials may also help breed drug-resistant bacteria.
It’s a tricky tightrope to walk. Washing your hands before eating is a good way to reduce your risk of foodborne illness, but removing too much beneficial bacteria from skin surfaces or gut can leave the body more susceptible to harmful bacteria and may cause allergic or autoimmune reactions.
The bottom line is that regular soap works great in moderation, and it should always be used before consuming food or sticking your fingers in your mouth. What kind of soap is best? I tend to lean towards the foaming liquid soap, mostly because it comes in great scents, but basically soap is better than no soap. Follow Doug’s mantra to wash your hands and don’t eat poop.
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.
No Soap at Subway
Courtlynn’s here and that meant a quick meal at Subway last night on our way home from the airport. The restaurant was fairly deserted and we only saw one male employee working. After we received our order to go, I ducked into the women’s restroom. While washing my hands, I reached for the soap and saw the sign pictured here. I rinsed with water and hoped the friction from the paper towel would be of some benefit. But I’m not serving meals to others and only had to hand Doug his sandwich in the car before eating my half. Proper handwashing requires the proper tools: water, soap, paper towels.
Katie, a.k.a. the woman who lives under our stairs, used to be a sandwich artist at Subway in the Soo. She says they got “into a lot of shit” if they didn’t keep the soap dispensers filled.
Eat fresh. Use soap.
Water, soap and paper towel: Aggieville bars have the handwashing tools
As part of the first Global Handwashing Day, students Mayra Rivarola and Skyler Wilkinson visited 11 restaurant bathrooms in Aggieville, Manhattan (Kansas) to ensure patrons were at least provided the tools to properly wash their hands.
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All of the bathrooms rated highly. Only 1-of-the-11 had a failure, a lack of paper towel.
So, wash your damn hands. And don’t eat poop.
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NZ cafe served dishwashing liquid instead of wine
The Southland Times newspaper reported that Chico's Restaurant Ltd in the mountain resort of Queenstown on South Island pleaded guilty to a charge of selling food containing extraneous matter -- the chemical sodium hydroxide -- that caused injury.An investigation showed the two liquids had been mixed up after 20 litres of dishwashing liquid was delivered in a container formerly used to hold Mountain Thunder mulled wine.
Under New Zealand's no-fault accident law, victims do not sue for damages. Instead, treatment costs and income loss are met by the nation's Accident Compensation scheme.
The company will be sentenced next month and faces a possible fine.
Do 'Employees Must Wash Hands' signs keep the piss out of happy meals?
One of his best lines, however, comes from a 2002 hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, where he said, “If you think the 10 commandments being posted in a school is going to change behavior of children, then you think “Employees Must Wash Hands” is keeping the piss out of your happy meals. It's not.”
That came to mind as I read Friday's N.Y. Times blog entry about handwashing and the lack of soap at Socialista where some celebrities now are being encouraged to keep hepatitis A shots.
Jennifer Lee writes that “Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work,” signs are required by the city health code in all bathrooms in restaurants and bars. Sometimes the signs are in Spanish and Chinese, as well as English.
The Health Department issued a Hepatitis A warning on Thursday after discovering there was no soap behind the bar at Socialista, a code violation, when it found that a bartender who worked there was infected with Hepatitis A.
City Room called up the Soap and Detergent Association, a Washington-based industry trade association, to get their thoughts on the missing soap.
Brian Sansoni, the association’s vice president of communications, was quoted as saying,
“Surely a place that charges $12 for a cocktail can afford a 99-cent container of liquid soap. … Soap-making was known as early as 2800 B.C, It’s not necessarily a new technology. … You can get soap in bar form, liquid form, foam. It’s not like we’re trying to find Kryptonite here. We’re talking about soap. As basic as soap is, we hear too many cases of too many places with not enough soap.”
Proper handwashing first requires access to proper tools: running water, soap, and paper towel.
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Antibacterial or regular soap?
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Proper handwashing requires access to the proper tools -- soap, water and paper towel.But what soap is best?
Allison Aiello, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, was cited as telling the Los Angeles Times that antibacterial soaps may give consumers an added sense of security, but "they don't seem to provide a benefit above and beyond ordinary soap."
Aiello and colleagues recently surveyed 27 separate studies that investigated the effectiveness of soaps containing triclosan. Some studies looked at rates of infectious diseases; others measured levels of bacteria that lingered on hands after washing. As the researchers will report in an upcoming issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, they found no evidence that antibacterial soaps prevent more illnesses or remove more germs than regular soap.
Aiello also points to several laboratory studies suggesting that triclosan can help bacteria build up resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as methicillin and erythromycin. Because of these potential risks, Aiello says, regular soap would be a better choice.
But Emily Sickbert-Bennett, a public health epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health who has studied antibacterial soaps, was quoted as telling The Times there's "no good evidence" that triclosan has encouraged antibiotic resistance in the real world. She says consumers can safely use antibacterial soaps without worrying about creating super-bugs.
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