Handsfree Dispenser

      The media is covering the Swine flu, HINI, issuing reports and alerts. That’s fine.  We need to be reminded about the  1.7 million cases of “nosocomial” or hospital-caught infections of MRSA, methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus.  The Center for Disease Control estimates that there are 100,000 deaths annually due to MRSA infections. That is double the number of people killed in the Vietnam War.

       The CDC also figures that 2.3 million Americans carry the bacteria in their noses without symptoms. Once contracted, there is little that doctors can do with antibiotics or emergency oxygen.  It starts out with a stuffy nose, cough, and mild fever. The frightening factor is that even healthy, young people can succumb to it in 72 hours and die.  And now community acquired MRSA is showing up in gyms, prisons and other places.

        Hands that are contaminated, sneezes, and coughs spread the disease that is why we are getting advice through the media on how to prevent  MRSA.  Wash your hands before eating, and after touching public objects like money, shopping carts, and doors. Keep hand sanitizer handy.Sneeze and cough into your elbow instead of your hand.  When visiting your gym, be aware of germs and wash your hands and shower. Hospital caregivers and visitors must be reminded to wash their hands or use sanitizer.  A great invention are hands free door openers, especially for public restrooms. After you have washed your hands, you don’t want to handle a door.

       This morning I was shopping in a drugstore.  As I walked down one aisle, a clerk was stocking the shelves.  He sneezed while trying to say hello. I said, “Sorry, you must have a cold”.  He replyed, “Yes I do”. While shopping further, I heard 5 more sneezes.  Now you know he was sneezing into the air, literally spraying germs everywhere. Maybe he was even sneezing into his hands, the hands that were handling items to be put on shelves.  A person who comes along and picks up one of these items, is exposed to the cold or flu germs.

       A person who is sick should not come to work, but you know that is not reality. Kids give their colds and flus to each other and to the teacher, office workers contaminate their desks and computers, food handlers can be the cause of illness, bank tellers can spread more than wealth. and clerks like the one I encountered today just don’t have a clue when it comes to preventing cross-contamination.

     Washing one’s hands and drying them with a sanitary paper towel,  hand sanitizers, using disinfectant wipes, and sneezing into the elbow, taught as hygiene for kids and adults are several ways to keep those germs from infecting others.

     As we go about our daily business we are unaware of the millions of germs we are in contact with.  Many of them are harmless, but on the other hand some of these organisms can cause illness.  It is impossible to avoid them all.  The best we can do is to wipe objects with a disinfectant wipe where it is possible, and to wash our hands after being in public, before touching someone, and before touching food. You don’t have to be a germaphobe to be safe.

     This is a ( incomplete) list of common germ carriers:    

     Purses, gym bags, diaper bags, credit and ATM cards, keys, cell phones, shopping carts, steering wheels, keyboards and a mouse, door knobs and light switches. The list could go on but these are the most frequent sources of germs. Travelling and staying in hospitals are a different story . DON’T FORGET TO WASH YOUR HANDS!                                  

Wash Your Hands

     Hands free towel dispensers are becoming popular in public restrooms. The public is more aware of restroom hygiene and avoiding cross-contamination. No one wittingly wants to touch devices that were handled by the prior user, especially in the high traffic of a public restroom.

     There are different types of touchless towel dispensers.  There are the sensor-operated dispensers like the popular enMotion models.  They are touchless because you just wave your hand in front of the sensor, and a towel appears. Other types have a centerfold towel that you can pull down for use. When you use these touch free towel dispensers you know that you are getting a germ-free paper towel.

      If the establishment that you visit does not have a hands free towel dispenser, give them a suggestion to install one. Then when you return, you will feel more secure in avoiding germs.

Hands And Germs

Next his quiz revealed these facts:

*Among personal items, lipstick contains the most germs.

*Germs enter the body mainly through the mouth.

*Women’s hands have more germs than men’s hands.

*The occupation that exposes one to the most germs is teaching.

*33% of Americans leave the restroom without washing their hands.

The Center For Disease Control states that simple handwashing can prevent illness.

Hands free soap and towel dispensers along with automatic faucets avoid germs.

‘Gross messages’ work to up hand washing

DENVER (UPI) — Gross messages such as “Poo on you, wash your hands,” were effective in getting undergraduates to wash their hands more, a U.S. researcher suggests.

Lead author Renee Botta of the University of Denver and colleagues posted messages in the bathrooms of two undergraduate residence halls with messages like “You just peed, wash your hands,” accompanied with vivid graphics and photos.

The study, published in the journal Communication in Healthcare, finds the gross messages resulted in a 26 percent increase in hand washing among females and an 8 percent increase among males. Observations in two control dorms over the same four-week period showed hand washing decreased 2 percentage points among females and 21.5 percentage points among males.

“Fear of spreading germs or getting sick by not washing didn’t mean much to students,” Botta says in a statement. “What got their attention was the knowledge that they might be walking around with ‘gross things’ on their hands if they didn’t wash.”

The researchers tried gross messages, germ messages and you’ll-get-sick messages, but they said the only ones with an impact were the gross messages.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

Virus can spread through cross contamination, particularly through the hands. Our hands are always in contact with something. It is no surprise then that our hands contain germs and viruses unseen by the naked eye. That is why it is important to keep our hands sanitized at all times, especially when we handle food.

Sometimes viruses and bacteria may spread from one person to another just by touching the same item, be it a door knob or a computer keyboard. Even bar soaps or liquid dispensers can be a source of viruses. A hands free soap dispenser is an effective alternative solution to washing hands. It makes use of infrared technology to dispense liquid soap any time without touching the dispenser itself. It can also be used for hand sanitizers and lotions and is great in businesses that require the hands to be sanitized at all times.