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Prick Parade
I'm getting really sick of seeing idiots in the men's room simply running a little water on their hands and then drying them. SOAP IS NOT OPTIONAL, MORONS!
These idiots step up to the urinal (which, please note, means that most of them are handling their equipment), piss, and then do a quick rinse-and-dry before walking out. To shake hands, touch doorknobs, eat food, whatever.
I think I'm going to stop shaking hands with people. I don't know where those hands have been...but in a lot of cases, they probably HAVEN'T been under a soap dispenser.
Later: I'm two-for-two. I wrote this originally because I was in the bathroom and a guy stood at the urinal and did what I wrote about. I was just in the bathroom again, and another guy used the urinal and then went to rinse his hands. But in his case, the auto-on feature of the faucet (our faucets have electic eyes that turn them on and off) didn't work instantly, so in irritation he smacked it - with his unwashed hand.
It went on, he waved his hand under the water for a microsecond, and left without even bothering to dry.
Yuck.
These idiots step up to the urinal (which, please note, means that most of them are handling their equipment), piss, and then do a quick rinse-and-dry before walking out. To shake hands, touch doorknobs, eat food, whatever.
I think I'm going to stop shaking hands with people. I don't know where those hands have been...but in a lot of cases, they probably HAVEN'T been under a soap dispenser.
Later: I'm two-for-two. I wrote this originally because I was in the bathroom and a guy stood at the urinal and did what I wrote about. I was just in the bathroom again, and another guy used the urinal and then went to rinse his hands. But in his case, the auto-on feature of the faucet (our faucets have electic eyes that turn them on and off) didn't work instantly, so in irritation he smacked it - with his unwashed hand.
It went on, he waved his hand under the water for a microsecond, and left without even bothering to dry.
Yuck.
no subject
I am so with you on this one! I stopped shaking hands with people about 2 years ago. I used a mens room at a pub once, because the ladies had no toilet paper. I was sat on the loo doing my business when I heard B (the DJ spinning on the decks that night) walk in, talking on his mobile phone. He finished his chat, peed and then left without even rinsing his hands. Not only did he not use soap, he didn't even TRY to rinse them. The fact that he touched anything in that evil bathroom was bad enough, let alone the fact that he touched his penis without washing his hands. *shudders* This was one of those bathrooms where you're afraid that just being in there makes you absorb dirt, and washing your hands might make you dirtier because you have to touch the incredibly skanky taps. I loathe with a passion restaurants/cafes/bars that don't keep their bathrooms clean.
Ideally you need to use water that is as hot as you can bear, lather up liquid soap (more hygienic and less staining to sinks that soap bars) and rub the palms, then the backs, then the interdigital spaces, then the thumbs and wrists and finally the fingernails. Rinse off with cool water and preferably turn the tap off without touching it. That's why hospitals/doctors surgeries normally have taps that you can turn off with your elbows. Then you shake off loose droplets into the sink and dry with a hand dryer (more environmentally friendly than paper towels - but they can be used if necessary). For optimal germ control, you should use an alcohol based lotion on them afterwards. Over here you can get something called Vicks First Defence Spray which you can spray on your hands after washing or touching dirty things. Nurses over here quite often carry this attached to their belts in hospitals because of the whole MRSA/germ transfer debacle.
See, you have to do all this to have actual proper clean hands like they teach you to at nursing school, so washing your hands with soap is the very least you can do.
There should be a system, like you can't leave the bathroom if you haven't used soap. The soap dispensers should produce tickets or tokens, and you can only open the door to leave if you have one these, thus ensuring that you have at least dispensed the soap.
no subject
Not that I'm essentially disagreeing with you, but the devil's advocate in me feels compelled to point out that urine is essentially a sterile, acidic fluid. So much so that it can actually be used as an _antiseptic_ in a severe pinch. There is no way that urine, to the best of my knowedge, can actually transmit disease. Then again, my knowledge is limited :)
I would be much more worried about people who do #2 and then don't wash their hands. Fecal material is and always will be the *real* problem.
no subject
no subject
It's not the fresh urine that's so gross IMO as the handling of equipment and contact with public facilities that have been touched by god knows what. I'm also grossed out when I see this in the bathroom at my job.
no subject
The active ingredient in soap (lye) is mildly toxic. This is not a coincidence... the chemical effect that makes it an effective cleaner - specifically the way it reacts with lipids and other grease compounds - is exactly the same chemical effect that makes it toxic. The difference is that some lipids are "dirt" and some lipids are part of the cell walls of our skin. But the lye doesn't know that... it treats both lipids the same way, that is, it grabs hold of the lipid and pulls it out of where-ever it is. Then we rinse, and the water carries the lye away, along with whatever lipids it has grabbed onto.
You'll notice that lye is only effective against a specific class of dirt, lipids; that's actually a very big class, and it's important that lye can do this. But overall, water is a much better cleanser, mostly because it affects a lot more of the things we put into the category of "dirt" and does less damage in the process (chemically speaking, water is absolutely amazing).
Lipids are one of the few things water can't affect - which is why lye, and other chemicals like ammonia, that do affect them are important cleansers... but everything that does affects lipids has the same problem; since it affects lipids, it affects the cell walls of skin cells. Fortunately, lye at least doesn't do a whole lot of damage.
Neither lye nor water is specifically anti-bacterial, although, of course, a lot of companies add anti-bacterial agents to their soap (although they maybe shouldn't, since overuse of anti-bacterial agents creates super-bugs immune to the agent). Water works against bacteria because it carries them away when you rinse. Lye is toxic to bacteria in the same way it's toxic to skin cells.
Anyway, I believe in matching the chemicals I use to the job I'm doing. When I want to get rid of lipids, including sweat and dead skin cells, I use soap. Otherwise I generally just use water.
Kiralee