Handsfree Dispenser

     We’ve all been told about potato salad in the summertime.  Don’t leave it unrefrigerated for long, and throw it out if it is not cold anymore.  Also responsible cooks and chefs will wash their hands before preparing food. What’s more when we order at a Subway, we can feel secure that the person making our sandwich has on vinyl gloves so therefore our food is not contaminated.

      Wrong. What we don’t know is how the different food items were prepared.  Did the food handler wash his or her hands before cutting up the vegetables and other items? Did he or she also handle other objects, thereby contaminating the food?   Even if a person wears gloves to handle food, if he or she touches other objects those gloves are contaminated  That also goes for cooking utensils while they are being used.

      After handwashing, the best way to dry hands is with a sanitary towel.  That means using a touchless towel dispenser. They can be wall-mounted  or countertop types.  Both are sensor-operated dispensers so that one gets a clean towel each time. This should be done before and after food handling.

      For foods other than meats and chicken a soap and water cleanup is sufficient, otherwise a disinfectant spray or wipe should be used on all surfaces touched by chicken and other meats to prevent the spread of Salmonella and e.coli.

     This is the season to be jolly.  A time for family gatherings.  Offices celebrate with parties.  People travel far and wide to be home for the holidays.  Shoppers  keep going, looking for that special gift.  Some areas of the country have a lovely carpet of snow.

     All of this sounds warm and fuzzy, festive and fun-loving.  The good news is that it usually is fun.  The bad news is that all this holiday activity exposes us to all kinds of viruses and germs.  The last thing you think of when hugging and kissing loved ones is the prospect of catching something. When shopping, it doesn’t occur to us that handling money, credit cards, and merchandise results in cross-contamination, especially during the busy season.  Commercial travel can do the same thing.  After all. airlines don’t disinfect planes after each flight. We are in restaurants  more often,  reading menus that everyone handles. We cannot avoid public restrooms either.

     So what can we do about all this?  It’s simple.  Stay aware of what you touch and when to wash or sanitize your hands, especially before eating or touching your mouth or nose.  If a restroom has devices such as handsfree towel dispensers and other touchless devices, then avoiding illness is easy. If not, just remember to keep your hands clean once they are washed. Enjoy your holiday socializing and stay healthy.

     How many times have we washed our hands in a public restroom only to find that we need to operate the towel dispenser with our now clean hands?  Didn’t we wash our hands so as not to pick up germs that were left behind by others?

     Today it happened to me again. After handwashing I had to try to get a paper towel out of the dispenser. After several attempts with my wrist, I finally got part of a towel.  Now the establishment had the common sense to put one of the towel dispensers near the exit door and also a trashcan., so one can use the towel to open the door (since they didn’t have a handsfree door opener).  It completely missed the boat when they installed those towel dispensers.

      All public restrooms should have touchfree towel dispensers to protect people from cross-contamination. During the flu and cold season we have to be extra careful since viruses can survive on objects and be transferred to others.

   We are all reminded that the flu season is upon us.  Even schoolchildren are instructed on how to avoid getting a flu, especially the H1N1 Swine flu.  Cough and sneeze into the elbow, wash your hands before eating, wash your hands after using the bathroom, etc.

     When using a public bathroom, often the toilet flusher, soap dispenser, and faucet  is automatic, sensor-operated.  How about the towel dispenser?  Sometimes it is not a touchfree towel dispenser,so  one must operate it with a wrist or arm so as not to contaminate the hands that were  just washed.  And then use that towel to exit the door if you need to.

Stay well and stay healthy.

      Evidently restroom messages that warn about spreading germs or getting sick by not washing hands is not as effective in motivating restroom users as gross messages with graphic pictures. At least not with students at Denver University.

 Researchers observed that female students were leaving the restrooms without washing their hands. At first they tried messages that warned about germs and getting sick but these didn’t mean much to the students.  So they switched to posters with graphic images and gross messages. Some examples were “poo-poo’s on your hands, wash your hands”, “you just peed, wash your hands’, and “who else sat on this pot?,wash your hands”.  These signs brought about a change of a 26% increase in handwashing for the females and 8% for the males. These messages got their attention because they thought they would be walking around with “gross things” on their hands.

After washing hands in a public restroom, the ideal situation is to be able to dry one’s hands using a hands free towel dispenser and a hands free door opener to exit.

       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.

     Wherever food is handled, be it in the home, school cafeteria, restaurant, retirement home, military canteen, packing house or any other institution, it must not come in contact with disease causing germs. When a food recall is issued, it is because of cross-contamination in the handling of that food item.  The most common sources are E.coli and Salmonella.  This means that the food handler did not wash his or her hands or did not use a germ free towel to dry the hands. Touching a towel dispenser that every one else has handled is not hygienic and defeats the purpose of hand washing. If one has to exit a door, that towel can be used to open the door. Touch free towel dispensers should be available to all food handlers. The CDC says that simple hand washing can prevent disease and this cannot be stressed enough with food handling.

     How many times do you enter a public restroom that is fully equipped with sanitary, touchless devices?  Not too often from my experience. In fact, some restrooms are the opposite with unclean soap dispensers, towel dispensers, flushers, and door handles. You know that these things have been handled by countless users before you.” What is the use of washing my hands?”, you say.  I totally agree.  I have used different strategies to get around this problem.  Once you wash your hands, whether the soap dispenser is automatic or not,  you want to avoid cross-contamination. The towel dispenser may or may not be hands free.  Use your arm or back of your hand if it is not to get a clean towel. Then use it to turn off the faucet if need be.  lastly open the door with that towel.  If there is no receptacle near the door in which to throw in the towel, leave it on the floor.  This sends a message to the establishment.  At least have a trash can at the door to protect your clients from germs when they exit.

     When workers have to stay home because of illness, it costs the employer money. When workers who are ill come to work anyway, they spread the germs that caused them to be sick. They touch doorknobs or handles, pens and pencils, phones, keyboards, and armrests.  If they sneeze or cough into their hands and droplets reach desktops, the workplace area is contaminated. Keyboards especially have been shown to harbor more bacteria than a toilet seat.    This ought to be enough reason to motivate management to do the following:

    Mount a hand sanitizer dispenser in a convenient location for workers.

    Provide disinfectant wipes that can be used to clean surfaces like phones etc.

    Switch to keyboards that can be disinfected and washed. Wise investment

    Automatic devices like towel dispensers improve restroom hygiene

    Hands free restroom door openers are the last link to keeping germs away

                                                  STAY HEALTHY

     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.

     Many different germs live in public restrooms on soap dispensers, towel dispensers, flush handles, sink handles and door handles.  Handsfree dispensers and touchless devices are the answer to avoiding contact with these illness causing germs while handwashing and exiting the restroom.