Posted on 09/07/2013 8:07:09 AM PDT by EBH
AKRON, Ohio -- Here's something that might send you dashing back to the washroom: Microbiologists at GOJO Industries and other institutions have discovered that a quarter of the soap in public restrooms is so contaminated that it leaves your hands filthier than before you washed them.
In fact, some of the soap they tested contained so much fecal matter that you're almost better off washing your hands in the toilet after you flush it, said Charles P. Gerba, professor of microbiology in the University of Arizona's Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science.
GOJO, the company that invented Purell hand sanitizer, has launched a public awareness campaign called Gojo.com/NoMoreBulkSoap to not only warn consumers about the hazards of using dirty soap, but also to convince businesses, airports, shopping centers, restaurants, and schools to quit using some soap dispensers altogether...
... Turns out that washing with dirty soap could leave your hands with "25 times more (potentially harmful) gram-negative bacteria after washing than before washing with contaminated soap," Shumaker said. "You could end up going into a public restroom and coming out dirtier than you were before."
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
Better to get your own hand sanitizer. I buy the large bottle and keep refilling the smaller ones. Cheaper that way too.
What are they talking about?? - BARS of soap, like I haven’t seen in public restrooms for 20 years? - or the soap dispensers that are in EVERY public restroom now?
If so, HOW can the soap in the dispensers be unsanitary?
Well, good thing Momma taught me how NOT to pee on my hands in the first place...
The dispenser itself can be contaminated.
I like the automatic motion sensor soap, water and towel machines and the restroom doors that open out.
NEVER touch the flusher knob with your hands. Use your forearm or elbow. Always use your shirt tail to open the door as you leave. The towel dispensers can collect germ, too. When you are out of the bathroom, clean your hands with your own hand sanitizer. (Why public rest rooms aren’t required to put in the self-flushing toilets, blow-dryers, and door handles you can push agains, I’ll never know.)
REad the article...it is the liquid soap dispensers!
Go read the article...it is the liquid soap dispensers in every public restroom! Ewww....
BS flag.
I haven’t seen a bar of soap in a public restroom in the last 20 years, and it is simply impossible for fecal matter to be transmitted inside of a sealed liquid soap container by someone hitting the dispensor.
doesn't sound kosher....
besides, its not the soap that washes your hands....its the running water while you wash your hands, and physically removing any contaminants.....using paper towels brusquely helps further to wipe away any contaminants...
people think soap sterilizes your hands but it doesn't....
and someday, they'll find that repeated washing your hands with the alcohol soap is only making germs more adaptable...and we less resistant.....
I did, so I have withdrawn my comment.
Oh I never touch the flusher knob, actually will use my foot. Nastiness to ever have to use a public restroom!
Even if, the uncontaminated soap is used to wash the hands AFTER touching the dispensor. This is a BS study.
Really? You want more government regulation?
People are so paranoid about germs, especially with children, that they never allow their immune systems to fully develop.
You’re immune system is like a muscle, Use It or Lose It!
It’s the dispenser not the soap. People have to touch the dispenser to get to the soap within. I guess most of them do not prewash their hands before doing this. I’m sensing an agenda here. Common sense will tell you that once you use the soap and rinse and dry any germs from the dispenser knob will be gone. Did they test the hands of people who had just used the soap?
What’s the big deal, you aren’t touching the dispenser after you wash your hands. You touch it before you wash your hands. That’s why it’s contaminated.
Sounds to me like a study to get people to buy hand sanitizer, which is actually worse for your hands because it kills the good bacteria that you are supposed to have.
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