A recent study by Michigan State University shows that of almost 4,000 people observed in a field test only five percent washed their hands effectively and more than 10 percent didn’t wash them at all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend people wash for 15 to 20 seconds with soap and water in order to kill infection-causing germs.

The study too showed that men were not near as sanitary as women were when it came to washing hands. Men only used soap when they did wash half the time and women used it 78 percent of the time.

Not feeling that well one day, I hung around a restroom door in a store in Salt Lake, wondering if I ever could leave. Something I ate or some bug caused it, I didn’t know which. But there I was.

I was there for about 10 minutes and 13 people came and went. It was a unisex bathroom so I saw people from both sexes. Out of that 13, I only heard the paper towel dispenser throw out its light tan paper to dry hands on five times. That means unless some of them were washing their hands and were not drying them, eight people wandered around that store spreading germs everywhere they went.

If you don’t wash your hands after being in a restroom you are endangering others. It’s tantamount to if you were driving drunk or swinging a ball bat indiscriminately in a crowd.

Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps any of us can take to avoid getting sick ourselves, as well as spreading germs to others. Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running water.

Source: Sun Advocate, Price Utah, www.sunad.com