Also, please social distance your ass out of my basement .
Ever see the Mythbusters episode where they lined up toothbrushes to see how far fecal matter traveled. Right near the toilet was the worst but nowhere was safe.
So yes washing hands helps but it’s not the be all, end all solution.
I’m sure someone will disagree with me but I think protecting ourselves completely from infection isn’t a good idea. Particularly after reading Immune (good but not the best resource) I think washing our hands all the time or using antibacterial soap is not a good choice for our individual health and immune system strength.
I’ll agree on not using antibacterial soap all the time. There’s plenty of soaps that aren’t antibacterial but still help remove contaminants. People should definitely at least wash their hands with hot water. It’s one thing to harbor trace amounts of bacteria, but no one should be spreading urine or fecal matter to every surface they touch.
Washing hands a few times a day when using the restroom is infrequent enough to not be considered washing them all the time. There are hours to get some bacteria, but washing a few times a day reduces the volume so your body doesn’t need to fight as hard.
I dont live in a sterile environment. There is a lot of ground between bleaching your home every morning and licking every door handle in Central Station.
One of the first things they taught in my micro bio class is that no single bacteria is bad. What is bad is when they are where they shouldn’t be. This makes the point of hand washing more or less to remove bacteria that may be problematic being on your hands where you could spread them to vulnerable areas.
Regular hand soap is perfectly fine. It may dry your hands out from overuse, but as soon as you touch any part of your body (like your arms or face) your hands would be inoculated with your body’s natural flora that resides on your skin.
Antibacterial soap would be the larger issue, as a lot of them have what is called a persistent effect. This persistent effect means that the antibacterial agent leaves traces of itself behind and will kill any bacteria that is susceptible to it. While good if used responsibly for people like surgeons to eliminate/reduce any stray bacteria during a procedure, this can lead to the same sort of scenario we have with antibiotics where some bacteria may develop a resistance to it, which could also include pathogenic varients/strains.
Because I’ve had this conversation too many times before:
If you use the urinal, wash your hands. Even if you didn’t have to touch it to flush, wash your hands. Your dick is not “cleaner than the door handle”, wash your hands.
I used to think that I didn’t need to wash my hands after using the restroom because my entire body gets washed on a daily basis, so touching my dick isn’t a reason to wash them.
Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that touching my dick doesn’t warrant washing my hands. Now though, I wash them when I use the restroom (though sometimes before rather than after) because it’s a way to ensure that my hands get washed regularly. Most of the other stuff I touch throughout the day doesn’t get washed on a daily basis.
Wash your hands because the sink is there.
When you flush a toilet, urine and feces are splashed around the room in droplet form.
Just flush with it closed?? I know that they are splashed, but to avoid that you can literally just close the toilet.
(I don’t know if “close” is the correct verb, I cannot remember what the part of the toilet that covers the seat is called)
Eh, if my dick is cleaner than the handle for the sink and I’m just pissing them I’ll go ahead and not wash thank you.
If one takes a shit of course you have to wash but otherwise one should weigh the options and risks.
