Why Wash Hands

Clean hands are charming hands. Germ hands are gross hands.

Feces (poop) from people or animals is a main source of germs, which if not washed off, remain on our hands (e.g., from toilet, handling raw meat). Fecal matter shoots into the air when a toilet flushes (up to 15 feet) — called a ‘toilet plume,’ which can then be sucked into public restroom air dryers and blown onto hands.⁴ Even the average swimmer adds at least 0.14 grams of fecal matter to the water within the first 15 minutes of entering.⁶

Yet, researchers have found that only 3 in 10 of men and 6 in 10 women washed their hands after using a public restroom.⁹ Yuck! 

You then touch the same surfaces, such as restaurant menus, touch screens, shopping carts and equipment at the gym. If you touch your face, especially eyes, nostrils or mouth, you can infect yourself or others, especially considering people touch their faces — a lot.

Researchers videotaped office workers for 3 hours, finding an average of 16 touches of eyes, nostrils or lips per hour.¹² Another study found that people rub their eyes or pick their nose at least once every 3 hours.⁸