Hand washing bothers me. Before you wonder about me let me explain. Hand washing bothers me because it reminds me of just how inadequate it is. I wash my hands. I wash them when I used the restroom, before I eat, before I play with Levi and other times as well. But this just doesn’t seem enough. I see so many people who don’t wash their hands. They come out of a bathroom stall and walk right out. Sometimes, if they’re feeling ambitious, or they think someone is watching they’ll run the water a few seconds and put their hands under there. I’m sure the slight dampness really bothers germs.
With this lack of care on other people’s parts it just seems like I am fighting a losing battle. What good does it do for me to wash my hands then then open the door that Mr. Nasty just used. There are so many common surfaces and items out there its disgusting. Think about how many people have used the same menu you are using at a restaurant. Now think about how many of them haven’t washed their hands. Think about the rag that was used to wipe down the table. When was it last cleaned? When was the soapy water last switched out?
In the past people didn’t worry about germs. Heck, we didn’t even know they existed. No one bathed or washed their hands. Of course we didn’t have antibiotics or antibacterial soap either. The mortality rate shows you part of the problem with this time. People now live much longer and fewer die in our country. Of course all the antibiotics and antibacterial soap have just led to much stronger diseases. In our quest to be clean and safe we’ve made things worse. Our stomachs can’t handle some of the weakest things now because we’ve weakened our resistance.
I’m not proposing we all stop washing or anything, but perhaps we go back to regular soap. It still kills the same number of bacteria as antibacterial soap according to one article I read. One thing I’d love to see is a little more in the way of standards of cleanliness. You know those “Employees must wash hands before returning to work” signs? I want to see those where I work. I use shared computers relatively often. That means I’m exposed to Mr. Nasty’s germs if he doesn’t wash his hands. Maybe we can add a Lysol wiping of keyboards and stuff to the list of cleanings that get done in offices. Maybe we can do that little alarm like in the Far Side cartoon below:
Just one more thing in the world that creeps me out. And now you’ll probably think about it too when you wash your hands. Ha, welcome to my little paranoid world.
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