Handwashing
February 2008

BARFBLOG: Do 'Employees Must Wash Hands' signs keep the piss out of happy meals?
25.feb.08
barfblog
Doug Powell
Barfblog Post
Jon Stewart did an admirable job hosting the Oscar's last night, although he's better on The Daily Show.
One of his best lines, however, comes from a 2002 hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, where he said,
“If you think the 10 commandments being posted in a school is going to change behavior of children, then you think “Employees Must Wash Hands” is keeping the piss out of your happy meals. It's not.”
That came to mind as I read Friday's N.Y. Times blog entry about handwashing and the lack of soap at Socialista where some celebrities now are being encouraged to keep hepatitis A shots.
Barfblog Post
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/lather-up-the-hand-wringing-over-hand-washing/
Jennifer Lee writes that “Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work,” signs are required by the city health code in all bathrooms in restaurants and bars. Sometimes the signs are in Spanish and Chinese, as well as English.
The Health Department issued a Hepatitis A warning on Thursday after discovering there was no soap behind the bar at Socialista, a code violation, when it found that a bartender who worked there was infected with Hepatitis A.
City Room called up the Soap and Detergent Association, a Washington-based industry trade association, to get their thoughts on the missing soap.
Brian Sansoni, the association’s vice president of communications, was quoted as saying,
“Surely a place that charges $12 for a cocktail can afford a 99-cent container of liquid soap. … Soap-making was known as early as 2800 B.C, It’s not necessarily a new technology. … You can get soap in bar form, liquid form, foam. It’s not like we’re trying to find Kryptonite here. We’re talking about soap. As basic as soap is, we hear too many cases of too many places with not enough soap.”
Proper handwashing first requires access to proper tools: running water, soap, and paper towel.
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/02/articles/handwashing/dude-wash-your-hands/

CALIFORNIA: Opinion: The dirty truth
25.feb.08
Nurse.com
http://include.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/CA02/80220020
I wonder if I’m the only one who notices if people wash their hands after using the restroom or picking something off the floor. I even heard someone describe “social handwashing”: running the water in a public restroom but not bothering to get your hands wet because you’re in a hurry, making the people in the stalls think you actually washed your hands. Some people don’t even bother faking it, and too often people treat handwashing as an optional activity rather than a routine health practice. Even in hospitals, where there is endless education about the importance of handwashing, we still have room to improve our performance. Beleaguered infection control nurses are forever charged with inventing new strategies to ensure compliance with handwashing protocols, and the search for new products can take on gigantic proportions. This concern about handwashing has been going on for a long time.
When Florence Nightingale set forth her Notes on Nursing in 1859, Louis Pasteur’s germ theory had not yet been published. Indeed, Nightingale and many others subscribed to miasma theory to explain the spread of disease. This theory held that contagious diseases were caused by a noxious form of “bad air,” which was a poisonous vapor filled with particles from decomposed matter that gave the air a nasty, foul smell. Thus Nightingale spent a lot of time in Notes on Nursing describing how to create and maintain a clean environment for patients, as that was critical to nursing them back to health, and a small piece of maintaining a clean environment had to do with personal cleanliness. “Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day,” she said. “If her face too, so much the better.”
About 10 years later, the germ theory began to gain momentum, and all of a sudden, there was a new reason for people to wash their hands — disease-causing microorganisms were found residing on our skin. However, it wasn’t until 1986 that the CDC issued its Guidelines for Hand Washing and Hospital Environmental Control, which say: “Wet hands with clean running water. Apply soap. Wash the hands for 10-15 seconds maintaining vigorous mechanical friction all over the lathered surfaces of the hands. Rinse well and dry with a paper towel or clean cloth.”
I still mentally sing “Happy Birthday” when I wash my hands to make sure I give it the full 15 seconds, just as I was taught in nursing school. I wonder sometimes when I observe other nurses washing their hands if they have the same, or some different, tune going through their heads as they scrub away for the full allotted time. Because most of us are too reticent to actually sing out loud, I’ll probably never know the answer. However, I do know that despite all the advances in technology and practice, the simple practice of handwashing is probably even more important today than it was 150 years ago.

IRELAND: Concern on handwashing ads
21.feb.08
Irishhealth.com
Niall Hunter
http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=13105
Barfblog Post
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association was cited as saying it plans to protest to the HSE about its current advertising campaign asking patients to ask health professionals whether they have washed their hands.
The HSE, as part of its campaign to improve hospital hygiene and reduce the risk of infection, is encouraging patients to ask healthcare workers whether they have cleaned their hands.
The campaign has met with a mixed reaction from the public, judging by the latest irishhealth.com viewers' poll results. One viewer says she has even complained to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission about the advertising campaign. (To view the full results and comments click on...http://www.irishhealth.com/poll.html?pollid=423)
The HSE says it recognises that this may be difficult for a patient to do, but it is such an important issue in terms of preventing healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) that "no health worker would object to reassuring the people in their care that they are getting the clean pair of hands they deserve."
HSE Assistant National Director for Health Protection Dr Kevin Kelleher was cited as saying evidence shows that hand hygiene is the single most effective defence against the spread of MRSA.
He said patients and healthcare staff are now much more aware and concerned about healthcare-associated infection.
Guidelines issued as part of the Strategy for the Control of Antimicrobial Resistance in Ireland state that senior healthcare workers such as consultants, nurse managers and managers in allied health professional groups, such as catering and domestic staff, must act as role models and actively promote hand hygiene.
However, the IHCA believes the current HSE campaign is misdirected and says it has caused considerable anger among consultants.
Donal Duffy, Assistant Secretary General of the IHCA, was quoted as telling irishhealth.com, adding, "They find it gratuitously insulting, given that the campaign effectively accuses consultants of not washing their hands."
He said consultants are, in fact extremely conscious of the need for hand hygiene and of its role in combating hospital infection.
Janette Byrne of the Patients Together organization, was quoted as saying, "If you are feeling very sick it would be difficult to have the worry of asking staff about their hand hygiene. We feel that the full responsibility for this should be placed on hospital staff, and it is not fair to put this burden on the patient. … Many people would struggle to confront a doctor or nurse on this issue and we feel the campaign is very much a case of the HSE passing the buck."
Dave Hughes, Deputy General Secretary if the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) was cited as saying they would not be opposed to the campaign to advise patients to ask healthcare workers about hand-washing, adding, "We have no problem with the idea; however, we would question the timing of this campaign when we are dealing with other issues such as serious staffing problems as a result of recruitment restrictions. The HSE is putting more pressure on already hard-pressed staff."

BARFBLOG: Washing your hands, California style
17.feb.08
barfblog
Amy Hubbell
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/02/articles/handwashing/washing-your-hands-california-style/index.html
Doug and I are in L.A. for a few days and I’ve appreciated the prominent handwashing signs in public and private lavatories. This one comes from the outdoor Public Restroom off the beach at the famous Gladstone’s of Malibu seafood restaurant. I read the sign when I walked into the bathroom, but when I tried to wash my hands, the water came out of the faucet in a tiny trickle. The water pressure in their indoor/private facility was slightly better but still conservative. It’s impressive to have signage that indicates all the different times when one should wash her hands, but if the facilities are lacking, there isn’t much point.
The second sign, found today at a beach café in Long Beach, CA was also interesting because the Spanish appears larger than the English part. I also like the idea that I’m State Law if I do not wash my damn hands before returning to work.

Dude, wash your hands: K-STATE professor explains proper hand washing
14.feb.08
Kansas State University
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/02/articles/handwashing/dude-wash-your-hands/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOeQh2-ci3M
Proper hand washing with the proper tools -- soap, water
and paper towels -- can significantly reduce the chance of getting some
food-borne and other illnesses, according to Kansas State University's
Doug Powell, associate professor of diagnostic medicine and
pathobiology and scientific director of the International Food Safety
Network.
Powell says people should always wash their hands before handling or
preparing food and:
* after using the toilet;
* before handling ready-to-eat food;
* after handling raw food;
* after changing diapers;
* after playing with or cleaning up after pets;
* and after handling garbage.
People are continuously exposed to various bacteria and viruses because
of improper hand washing or lack of hand washing, Powell said. The
hands.
Disease-causing microorganisms such as campylobacter, shigella,
hepatitis A, E. coli 0157:H7 and salmonella can be transmitted via the
fecal-oral route, especially when people fail to wash their hands after
using the toilet, Powell said. He also said that according to a study
by the American Society for Microbiology, 23 percent of people who use
public restrooms do not wash their hands when they are done.
Powell said the steps in proper hand washing, based on the preponderance
of available evidence, are to:
* wet hands with water;
* use enough soap to build a good lather;
* scrub hands vigorously, creating friction and reaching all areas of
the fingers and hands for at least 10 seconds to loosen pathogens on
the fingers and hands;
* rinse hands with thorough amounts of water while continuing to rub
hands;
* then dry hands with a paper towel because the friction from rubbing
hands with paper towels helps remove additional bacteria and viruses.
Powell said water temperature is not a critical factor when washing
hands. Water hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses would
scald hands, so use a temperature that is comfortable.
Powell also said that the next time you visit a bathroom that is missing
soap, water or paper towels, to let someone in charge know.

SCOTLAND: Hand-washing is vital in battle against infection
08.feb.08
Glasgow Daily Record
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/entertainment-catch-all/2008/02/08/voice-of-scotland-86908-20312358/
Barfblog Post
The most important thing anyone can do in attempting to control infection is to ensure they wash their hands regularly, effectively and efficiently.
The hands are the main source of transmission of germs, which means if you wash or decontaminate hands regularly, you reduce the transmission which means you reduce the spread of infection.
It is not rocket science, washing your hands is a simple measure but an incredibly effective one.
Nicola Sturgeon has announced she wants hand hygiene compliance in Scotland to be 90 per cent by the end of the year.
That's an immense challenge as you are changing cultures and practices but that's not to say we can't do it.
For information on the Hand Hygiene Campaign visit www.washyourhand softhem.com

CALIFORNIA: Meritech's handwashing ads win at Mobius Awards
01.feb.08
from a press release
http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20080201/
LAF02401022008-1.html
LOS ANGELES--A series of print advertisements created by Meritech, Inc. to make restaurants more aware of the importance of handwashing won a Certificate for Outstanding Creativity in the 2007 International Mobius Awards for Advertising.
The Mobius Awards is an international competition in its 37th year. It drew entrants from 35 countries, and winners represent 29 countries.
The ad campaign, which won in Print-Commercial Products, featured a series of advertisements on the theme of "Beauty is Only Skin Deep." A contaminated chicken, lettuce and tomato were used to deliver the message to restaurants that even if their hygiene program is up to par, their suppliers' programs may not be, and handwashing is the most important way to prevent the spread of germs.
The advertisements promote Meritech's CleanTech Automated Handwashing Systems, which have been used worldwide in agriculture, food processing, food service, healthcare and cleanroom manufacturing for more than 20 years. The systems use about a fourth of the amount of water as manual handwashing, thus reducing wastewater and use of soap, said CEO Jim Glenn.
Rebecca Yaffe, Director of Marketing for Meritech, designed the advertisements. It was her first campaign for the company, which is a division of Resurgent Health and Medical of Golden, Colo.
The award was one of five given in the Commercial Products category for all mediums.