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Hand Hygiene

In the last year, now that the drug-resistant MRSI (flesh-eating) virus has come out of hospitals and into high school locker rooms, and now that bacteria resistance against antibiotics is threatening the general public, personal hygiene has become more important than ever.

Statistics on Hand Washing

What is alarming is that new health surveys show that hand washing in public restrooms is actually declining. Time magazine reports that in 2005, 90% of women and 75% of men washed their hands after using public restrooms. In 2007, that figure was down to 88% of women and 66% of men washing their hands after using public restrooms.

Plain Soap Versus Anti-Bacterial Soaps

Studies at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2007 revealed that anti-bacterial soaps exhibit no health advantages over plain soaps. In fact, research shows that anti-bacterial soaps contain an active ingredient of triclosan, which seems to cause certain bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics such as amoxicillin, a commonly prescribed antibiotic (in the penicillin family). While these changes have not been confirmed at the public level, other testing revealed that the deadly e-coli bacteria have shown adaptive antibiotic-resistant changes when exposed to just 0.1% of weight-to-volume amounts of triclosan soap.

Surprise Results

These results, published in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, indicate that e-coli could exist in the concentration levels found in OTC (over-the-counter) antibacterial soaps. What’s more, the researchers studying OTC soaps containing a range of 0.1 - 0.45% concentrations discovered that they were not any more effective than plain soaps!

At present, the FDA doesn’t regulate the levels of triclosan in consumer products. (Hospital soaps contain far greater concentration levels of triclosan.) The study was limited to antibacterial soaps, and not hand sanitizers with alcohol.

How Much Washing Is Enough?

Medical hospitals recommend washing lathered hands for a minimum of 15 seconds (which is actually longer than it sounds). Also, most doctors warn that the most common source of acquiring germs is touching one’s nose or hair, or shaking someone else’s hand.

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Sources: Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings - 2002 (http://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene) Antibiotic Resistance and Pyelonephritis Clinical Infectious Diseases Volume 45, Issue 3, Page 281–283, Aug 2007

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