Why don't guys wash their hands after going to the bathroom?

[D H]

I'm not an organic chemist, but I wash my hands before going to the bathroom.

10 second rule:
If a piece of food falls on the floor, it is still edible for the next ten seconds

I have two large dogs that shed like crazy. If I drop a piece of food on the floor it is almost certain to the one dog hair dust bunny I did not sweep up. Dog hair doesn't bother the dogs; they apply their ten millisecond rule whether or not the food lands in a dust bunny. The dog ten millisecond rule: if I don't say stop within ten milliseconds after dropping some piece of food, it's theirs.

 

[NeoDevin]

This occurred to me too. If all bathrooms had doors that opened outward, we wouldn't have to run the gauntlet of the door handle.

I don't know why all public bathrooms aren't designed to be touchless. IR toilets, soap dispensers, and faucets, the paper towel dispensers that you just pull down on the towel (I hate the IR paper towel dispensers, they never give enough), and a doorless entry (where you go around a corner so no one can see in).

The only thing you need to touch in a washroom like this is the stall door, and there must be some way to fix that too, I just can't think of it.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Is this the right place to complain about people who pound the paper feed 5, 6 times and more to make sure that they waste the proper amount of paper after washing. All the while stressing the equipment in order to shorten its lifetime. Or should I start a new thread?

 

[Holocene]

I don't like the idea becasue then your washing your hands at the sink with both men and women and its not private to one sex only.

You need privacy to wash your hands?

 

[Cyrus]

You need privacy to wash your hands?

My skin is very sensitive. It need the proper lighting, moisture content in the air, water hardness, and soap chemistry.

...No, its the fact that the guys and girls are using the bathroom (proximity) that I don't like. If a guy farts loud in the bathroom its like, whatever. If you know its a girl in there that just did it and you thought she was good looking at the table over from you...that's kinda gross.

 

[Holocene]

...No, its the fact that the guys and girls are using the bathroom (proximity) that I don't like. If a guy farts loud in the bathroom its like, whatever. If you know its a girl in there that just did it and you thought she was good looking at the table over from you...that's kinda gross.

Hahahaha...

 

[ekrim]

I always wash my hands after numero dos, but often only fully wash my hands with soap after urinating when in public places.

Fact is, when us guys touch our penises with our hands, we're getting the penis dirty, not the hands. There are germs/bacteria on the penis, but not as much as on the hands, since we don't go around touching everything with our penises.

speak for yourself

 

[Math Is Hard]

speak for yourself

 

[bassplayer142]

humans have been around thousands of years before soap was invented. Maybe it is just tradition and not societies view on the subject.

 

[JasonRox]

My skin is very sensitive. It need the proper lighting, moisture content in the air, water hardness, and soap chemistry.

That blows.

I shave with a dull blade and just water.

My skin is very nice too. No weird elbow skin, no rashes, no red marks anywhere.

 

[tribdog]

That blows.

I shave with a dull blade and just water.

My skin is very nice too. No weird elbow skin, no rashes, no red marks anywhere.

This'll all change once you hit puberty.

 

[Cyrus]

That blows.

I shave with a dull blade and just water.

My skin is very nice too. No weird elbow skin, no rashes, no red marks anywhere.

...that was a joke, Jason. <smacks forehead>

 

[tribdog]

Seems like everyone kicks the doors open to these bathrooms. wouldn't that mean it is safer to use the handle?

 

[bassplayer142]

I don't remember what state it was but in one of them it is illegal to have a bathroom that opens to the inside. This obviously eliminated the need for grabbing anything when exiting. This is how every bathroom should be.

 

[mgb_phys]

It's generally a rule that all fire doors must open in the direction of the fire exit.
In california it's quite strict - you even have to have gates on stairwells to stop you going toward the basement.
It took a long time to get all our lab doors correct - but it doesn't seem to apply to toilets or office doors.

 

[LowlyPion]

... but it doesn't seem to apply to toilets or office doors.

Presumably there aren't crowds of people vying to exit from a bathroom stall ... unless maybe a US senator is about reaching for a dropped piece of paper.

 

[chroot]

Yeah but what about that bathroom entrance or stall door? What about the handle on the urinal? If you only wash with water, what about that faucet handle? Those are all breeding grounds for disease.

Breeding grounds for disease? Dirty, nasty penises? This is ridiculous. Have you ever met anyone -- ANYONE -- who has caught any serious disease from a faucet? Even one person? No, you haven't. Sure, common colds get spread by touch, but they get spread just as easily on handrails, doorknobs, computer keyboards, and other surfaces that people touch all the time without washing their hands.

The truth is, the reason we wash our hands after peeing is not because our penises are filthy and we're protecting other people against disease... far from it. The reason we wash our hands is because we westerners live in a society essentially founded on church laws, and churches have taught people to be ashamed of their bodies for thousands of years, particularly those naughty bits down below.

My advice? Find something more important to worry about, and stop wasting mental energy and outrage on things that do not measurably affect your health. The chap who pees and rinses his hands off without soap is certainly no more likely to give you an infection than the kid behind the counter at your local sandwich shop, or your friend's toddler who sits on your lap.

- Warren

 

[Moonbear]

BUT, I unroll the towells before I wash my hands. That way when I'm done washing my hands I don't have to pull the lever down that other people have touched with my clean hands.

Grrr...that's my pet peeve, people who pull the lever with DIRTY hands, leaving it dirty for the next person who uses it after cleaning their hands. If everyone just used it AFTER washing their hands, it would stay clean.

 

[Moonbear]

Breeding grounds for disease? Dirty, nasty penises? This is ridiculous. Have you ever met anyone -- ANYONE -- who has caught any serious disease from a faucet? Even one person? No, you haven't. Sure, common colds get spread by touch, but they get spread just as easily on handrails, doorknobs, computer keyboards, and other surfaces that people touch all the time without washing their hands.

The truth is, the reason we wash our hands after peeing is not because our penises are filthy and we're protecting other people against disease... far from it. The reason we wash our hands is because we westerners live in a society essentially founded on church laws, and churches have taught people to be ashamed of their bodies for thousands of years, particularly those naughty bits down below.

My advice? Find something more important to worry about, and stop wasting mental energy and outrage on things that do not measurably affect your health. The chap who pees and rinses his hands off without soap is certainly no more likely to give you an infection than the kid behind the counter at your local sandwich shop, or your friend's toddler who sits on your lap.

- Warren

I think I will opt not to shake your hand if I meet you...sounds like you might be trying to defend not washing hands.

Hand washing after using the restroom is intended to prevent diarrheal diseases. The defense, "have you ever known anyone to get a disease from a faucet," is ridiculous. How would you know that was the source unless you were testing it? I'll put a different question to you...have you ever known someone who had a bout of illness with diarrhea without knowing who they got it from (i.e., nobody else in the house or among their friends had it first)? Where do you think that comes from?

It takes all of 20 seconds to properly wash one's hands properly.

And, yep, men have less compliance than women, but neither sex washes their hands adequately...at least not in NZ. I suspect the results would be similar in the US.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

 

[Cyrus]

Grrr...that's my pet peeve, people who pull the lever with DIRTY hands, leaving it dirty for the next person who uses it after cleaning their hands. If everyone just used it AFTER washing their hands, it would stay clean.

NO! But then the lever is all wet from the guy who just washed his hands. I don't like that nasty water all over the lever ahhhhhh! <head explodes>

 

[turbo]

As a process chemist in a pulp mill, I got into the habit of washing my hands both before AND after urinating. There are some pretty nasty chemicals in such a mill, including lots of complex organics that we essentially knew nothing about (medical effects). When I'm making chili relishes and salsas, I practice the same routine, but for different reasons.

 

[chroot]

I think I will opt not to shake your hand if I meet you...sounds like you might be trying to defend not washing hands.

I was my hands, but I feel it's more of a social convention than an actual epidemiological necessity. It's nice to have clean hands, but I seriously doubt the veracity of any claims that hand-washing really prevents any diseases.

Hand washing after using the restroom is intended to prevent diarrheal diseases.

I'm aware. Take, for example, very large bike rides like AIDS/LifeCycle: 2,500 people using porta-potties every day for a week, with nothing to wash their hands with other than wet towelettes. The incidence of gastroenteritis, suspected to have been caused by poor sanitation: perhaps 3-4. That's right, in some of the most unsanitary conditions present in the entire western world, an incredibly small number of people ever catch anything.

Furthermore, the same organisms that cause gastroenteritis are present in dirt, on and in our food, on our skin, on the skin of our loved ones, on our pets, in our apartments, and virtually everywhere on earth. Properly-maintained, modern western bathrooms are cleaner than almost any other facilities you're ever going to use, including buses, cabs, and common areas in office buildings.

Where do you think that comes from?

Do you know where that comes from? No, you certainly don't.

On the topic of soap, it's been shown many times in studies that the friction of rubbing one's hands together under running water is the most effective component of good hand-washing, NOT the use or quantity of soap.

Keep washing your hands folks -- it's a reasonable idea. Should you get outraged when someone else does a courtesy rinse? Should you post alarmist threads about hand-washing on the internet and try to recruit other people to share in your outrage? Probably not. Find something important to worry about.

- Warren