One in 5 men don’t wash hands after going to the toilet – survey

Why a lack of effective hand hygiene presents a risk to colleagues in the workplace

There’s an old expression – “a chain’s only as strong as its weakest link”. The same applies to hand washing in the workplace – if a few people don’t wash their hands when they should, it puts everyone else at risk…

Pretty much everyone is well aware of the importance of hand washing – and of carrying it out effectively, for the right duration and using vigorous washing and scrubbing techniques. A quick “splash and dash” simply won’t do. But even worse than that, 20% of men don’t even go that far after a visit to the lavatory, according to a recent report on the Liverpool Echo website.

The article by Ariane Sohrabi-Shiraz revealed that a Public Health Wales survey, carried out last year, concluded that “that one in five men in the country don’t wash their hands post-toilet use” – a sobering thought. Furthermore, only 41% of men and 50% of women deemed it necessary to wash their hands after returning from a public space – as stated by the YouGov survey in question.

Always wash your hands – preferably with soap and water!

Sohrabi-Shiraz quotes Dr Amir Khan who has issued a “stark warning”.

“You should always wash your hands after using the bathroom. Now I know most of you guys do, but we all know someone who doesn’t, or have seen someone not do so.”

The risk of spreading the likes of salmonella, E.coli and norovirus are exacerbated when people in an office or other working environment of any kind fail to wash their hands properly. In which case, they leave the bathroom with “twice the amount of bacteria” on their hands than when they entered it.

Anyone not washing well runs the risk of passing on infection to others Dr. Khan is quoted as saying, with illnesses frequently being passed on by contact with “contaminated surfaces”.

Soap and water hand washing is very much Dr Khan’s preferred method of carrying out effective hand hygiene says the article.

“It’s best to wash your hands with soap and water, but if you don’t have access to that, hand sanitiser is the next best thing.”

The benefits, he maintains, are clear for the regular hand washers, with research concluding that they will “generally suffer fewer gut infections and respiratory viral infections.”

Doctor shares gross reason you should always wash your hands after going to the toilet »

Effective mobile hand washing for everyone – wherever they are

Teal produces a comprehensive range of mobile and washing units for every type of hand washing situation for use by anyone who needs to wash their hands effectively, whether they’re in hospital or medical facility, care home, an office environment, temporary accommodation or out in the field on a daily basis.

Mobile hand wash stations can also be hired »

There are vehicle mounted, wall mounted, mains powered and free standing hand wash stations as well as mobile sinks for use with pre-heated hot water.

The Teal range of mobile sinks includes the MediWash, Hygienius and Hygienius ProWash, BigSynk, Super Stallette, TEALwash, Handeman Xtra, Compact Classic, HandSpa, CliniWash – and now the new WashStand Xtra.