A reader from Milwaukee submitted this query to the CMD community:
I have noticed lately that girls, when in a public bathroom and at a sink that is not close to the soap dispenser will “wash” their hands using just water.
Having noticed it once, I now seem to see it everywhere.
Is this just a disgusting habit of the people in my locality or does this occur everywhere? I hope you can help clear up the confusion.
We’ve written quite a bit about washing hands. We always get a great response from our community and I am sure we can clear this up as well. So good reader, what do you think? Is it a distance-from-soap-dispenser based decision that drives this behavior?
From a guy’s perspective I can assure you that “no hand washing” and “water-only hand washing” is quite prevalent everywhere I’ve been in the world.
Though I am a proponent of thorough and soap-enhanced hand washing, I must admit that the disgusting state in which many establishments keep their bathrooms frequently makes me wonder if my hands aren’t getting MORE dirty by touching the faucet handle and soap dispensers.
I have to fight the urge to yell at the people who just dip their fingers under the running tap in lieu of handwashing. Do they believe that by showing the germs the water they will leap off, lemming-like, into the sink?
I’m not sure whether these people would use soap even if it were directly in front of their noses given that they appear to be worried about getting their hands too wet. If they put soap on they would need to actually wash to get it off again.
The water issue is an interesting one. I think people (men and women alike) must be worried that someone coming out of the loo with wet hands would be looked upon as gross. And whilst wet hands are potentially an indication of something really disgusting having occurred in the loo, I would think that most people exiting the loo with wet hands had just washed them. And we should be grateful for that.
Anyone who exits the loo with completely dry hands should definitely NOT be allowed to help themselves to the nachos, fries or poppers order that just arrived at the table for us to share.
I don’t know… some of the folks I see in the gents lead me to believe that my private parts are far cleaner than are they!
While hand washing is important, little attention ever gets paid to hand *drying*.
Hot air dryers are havens for bacteria. By using those you’re actually blasting your hands with toasty-warm bacteria then spreading them around as you rub your hands together, thus negating the washing.
The best option is to allow your hands to dry naturally, but admittedly that’s rarely practical so, where possible, opt for the paper towels.