You Won't Believe Who Does Not Wash Their Hands

As a young child, I was taught the importance of having good hygiene; those who had good hygiene had better health and were seen as cleanly people. Today in this day and age where learning about good hygiene is as simple as typing in a request in google or yahoo, or even going to a local clinic or library. It seems as though people are just overlooking this buffet of information.

Just yesterday while shopping in Walmart, I decided to head to the rest room with my 4 year old child. As we were washing our hands we noticed that there was someone in one of the stalls. As we were in the middle of our 3 minute hand washing, we noticed the woman exit the stall. She excited the stall, and then exited the bathroom. This woman a Walmart employee did not look twice at the fully working sinks and soap filled dispensers before heading towards the door. I heard her wipe herself and flush the toilet and yet she just casually strolled out of the door as if she had done nothing wrong.

You would not believe the number of women at my college who take for granted the warm water and sweet smelling soap offered at the sinks. Women come in batches to use the bathroom, check the hair and walk right out of the door. Many of these women are employees and students. The same people, who press the elevator buttons, open the corridor doors; access the same computers and library books.

Although I have yet to see this in action, my ears have been witness to many stories of those who work in restaurants and use the restrooms without washing their hands. It's almost scary to think that a chef could relieve him or herself , only to come back and cook up an order of fries or make that delicious sandwich (without gloves) and serve it to customers. It would not be too hard to imagine such a filthy deed with the latest news of the two atrocious employees and the Dominoes pizza scandal back in April of 2009.

A relative of mine used to be called the walking germ. Sure we need germs to survive, but what this relative did seemed very unnatural. He would use the restroom (make bowel movements) leave the bowel movement in the toilet, turn off the light and exit the bathroom and go on to his activities which could be anything from playing an Xbox or making a sandwich. This relative recently came down with some gastrointestinal problems which prompted him to make some severe changes in his bathroom using routine. Is this what it takes for people to realize the importance if hand washing? Maybe this is what it takes, a good bout of stomach virus.

Refusing to wash ones hands after using the rest room coming in from work, play, or everyday activities opens the flood gates for the transmission of many diseases such as gastrointestinal disorders (which lead to diarrhea), flu, and the common cold. Flu can lead to pneumonia which can lead to death. Food borne illness has such as salmonella and E coli. infection has even been related to lack of or poor hand washing and many have died from food borne illness.

It is so selfish to place everyone at an increased risk of infection just because some do not want to take the 20 seconds it takes to wash some of the germs off of their hands. And they say kids are the ones with the most filthiest of hands, I am getting ready to second guess that.