Hit water helps lift dirt and oils etc off but if its just washing your hands after the loo its not gonna make any differnce
Poll: Hand washing...
- Thread starter Kennysevenfold
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Hit water helps lift dirt and oils etc off but if its just washing your hands after the loo its not gonna make any differnce
Soldato
Even if it doesn't make any difference, I will still use hot/warm water as somehow it feels more comforting than just cold water. I do have a tube of antibacterial hand gel on my desk though which I use sometimes throughout the day.
Yeah always baffles me how people can just walk out the toilet without washing their hands.
Dirty so and so's
Man of Honour
Most bacteria that can survive on skin can survive temperatures roughly as high as human skin cells can. The "hot" water that can comfortably be used for washing wouldn't kill them. There are some far more temperature-sensitive bacteria, e.g. the bacteria that cause syphillis die in the low 40s, so low that a really high fever will usually cure a person of syphillis. I only know that because the strange fact that malaria was used to cure syphillis for quite a while has stuck in my head. As far as I know, they can't survive on skin anyway, probably because they're so temperature sensitive.
It's possible that "hot" water (which isn't really hot) might increase the efficiency of the surfactant (soap or whatever). I doubt if the small range of temperature involved would make any significant difference to it, though, especially for soap that's liquid at the temperature of cold water. The tiny amount of research done on the subject found temperature variation from 6C to 53C had absolutely no effect at all on handwashing efficiency. What matters is how well you wash your hands - coverage, duration, mechanical action. Which makes sense, since the point of soap is only to make it easier to remove greasy stuff from the surface of your skin.
Antibacterial soap is of disputed usefulness anyway and the most common chemical used (Triclosan) might even be dangerous. It's been banned from cleaning products in the USA because manufacturers couldn't provide any evidence it worked any better than soap without it or prove that it's safe for human use (there's evidence it does harm in animal trials).
I use warm or cold water, whichever is available, and wash my hands properly. Soap all over (many people don't wash their thumbs) and rubbing. It's the rubbing that's the main factor. I'll choose warm water over cold, but only because it's more comfortable.
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Soldato
Cold water with anti bacterial hand wash every time.
Tbh I'm fed up of the rest of the family using the hot tap for a matter of seconds as this causes my combi boiler to fire up yet the tap is not on long enough to become hot.
I had to replace the diverter valve in the boiler which cost £150 a month or so ago as it's on and off like a yo-yo in my house.
Tbh I'm fed up of the rest of the family using the hot tap for a matter of seconds as this causes my combi boiler to fire up yet the tap is not on long enough to become hot.
I had to replace the diverter valve in the boiler which cost £150 a month or so ago as it's on and off like a yo-yo in my house.
I thought that was a joke before I looked it up - you learn some strange things sometimes.
Soldato
The no shower thread? Yeah sure mate, you don't smell even though you only shower once a week.
I'm glad I don't work with those people.
Just cold water and soap.
I am not that precious about germs so am not overly concerned about maximizing effectiveness with all sorts of special anti germ killing things or 70 degree water....hell, I primarily wash my hands as etiquette for others more than myself I think - I myself am not concerned with a few germs (I imagine most work keyboards are likely a bigger hive of germs than a toilet door handle is) but others are and I consider it rude to make others suffer due to my own lack of concern
I am not that precious about germs so am not overly concerned about maximizing effectiveness with all sorts of special anti germ killing things or 70 degree water....hell, I primarily wash my hands as etiquette for others more than myself I think - I myself am not concerned with a few germs (I imagine most work keyboards are likely a bigger hive of germs than a toilet door handle is) but others are and I consider it rude to make others suffer due to my own lack of concern
Soldato
You wash your hands after the toilet at work or at the pub etc but then you go to touch the door handle where 100s of people who haven't washed their hands have touched.
**** is sterile when it leaves the body and I wait for someone else to open the door so I can catch it without touching the handle. Win win.
**** is sterile when it leaves the body and I wait for someone else to open the door so I can catch it without touching the handle. Win win.
Man of Honour
If a work keyboard is a bigger hive of germs than a toilet door handle it's probably because of how people use it. Not washing their hands, for example. Coughing or sneezing on it. Dropping stuff on it that bacteria can feed on. Also, toilet door handles usually get cleaned at least once a day. Keyboards usually don't. Toilet door handles are usually a smooth surface. Keyboards usually have over a hundred seperate keys with gaps between them. The surfaces of the keys probably aren't much dirtier than toilet door handles, but the gaps between them probably are.
It's not just germs. Humans shed skin and oil onto things they touch. Some people just don't like the idea of putting their fingertips in a slurry of rotting organic material and either keeping them there or sliding them around through the slurry (i.e. a touchscreen).
Man of Honour
Urine isn't sterile when it leaves the body. Also, few people urinate on their hands. The sterility of urine isn't relevant in this context.
Soldato
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Surprised how many voted hot water and hand wash. Why surprised? Most of us these days have combi-boilers and they waste a lot of water to heat a enough to wash hands. So, I voted cold water because even if I run the hot water tap, the water is usually not warm enough by the time I've finished to class it as hot.
Worked in Wales a few times now and have to say a lot of blokes at least don't even wash after a no.2. So never use the keyboard of a Welsh man as it may contain a*** biscuits
Worked in Wales a few times now and have to say a lot of blokes at least don't even wash after a no.2. So never use the keyboard of a Welsh man as it may contain a*** biscuits
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Surprised how many voted hot water and hand wash. Why surprised? Most of us these days have combi-boilers and they waste a lot of water to heat a enough to wash hands. So, I voted cold water because even if I run the hot water tap, the water is usually not warm enough by the time I've finished to class it as hot.
Worked in Wales a few times now and have to say a lot of blokes at least don't even wash after a no.2. So never use the keyboard of a Welsh man as it may contain a*** biscuits
not only does it take awhile to get hot water through the pipes, in England we seem to have a hatred of mixer taps, meaning hot tap is pointless.
Underboss
This is acceptable.
This is pretty much tells you all you need to know with hand washing.
https://www.quora.com/Does-soap-kil...How-does-the-hand-washing-process-really-work
So antibacterial products make little difference over normal soap. The soap part is the most important as it remove material from your hands, which slows/stops bacterial growth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_washing
So warm water is nicer to use and helps remove the food bacteria live on.
https://www.quora.com/Does-soap-kil...How-does-the-hand-washing-process-really-work
So antibacterial products make little difference over normal soap. The soap part is the most important as it remove material from your hands, which slows/stops bacterial growth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_washing
So warm water is nicer to use and helps remove the food bacteria live on.
And maybe a lick or two for the more persistent stains. Particularly if you didn't have ample water pressure when you needed it. (Works for cats, though they do have better tongues.)