Handsfree Dispenser

     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.

      There is an awareness these days about catching colds and flus, probably because of the H1N1 publicity.  People seem to be more careful about contaminating their hands .  They now sanitize or wash their hands before eating.  They even remind each other about these matters. Parents instruct their children, no matter what age, about handwashing and sneezing and couching into a tissue or elbow instead of their hands.

     A convenient way to teach younger children about avoiding germs and not sneezing or coughing them into the air is to use  Germy Wormy disposalable sleeve covers. The clever sleeves have a picture of Germy Wormy who eats the germs that are sneezed onto him. Childcare centers and parents get good results with them.

     One important message needs to be passed around.  When one leaves a public restroom, and the establishment has not installed a Sanitary Door Opener, use your paper towel to open the door.  After all, your washed hands should not be contaminated as you leave.

     You would not knowingly dip your hands into a bowl of germs.  Yuck!!  Well using a shared keyboard has almost the same effect, your fingers that touch the keyboard are contaminated.  Then whatever you touch with those unclean hands gets contaminated with microbes.

     That old saying “What you don’t see won’t hurt you”, does not apply here.  I read a study that found that there were more germs on a community keyboard than on a toilet seat. Egads!!  Don’t stop typing, there are remidies for the situation.

      First and foremost there are washable keyboards available.  They are immersable so that you can wash them completely. You don’t have to soap them up everyday.  In between washings you can clean the waterproof keyboard with a disinfectant wipe.  This doesn’t get in all those cracks like washing does but will reach the top surfaces.

     With the flu season upon us it pays to invest in a washable keyboard and cut down the sick days at work.

     Wherever you go you pick up germs on your hands everyday. Door knobs, money, mail, keyboards, shopping carts, people, animals, diapers, and the list goes on. When we touch our eyes, nose, or mouth, hopefully it will be with clean hands.  If not,  we can potentially get infected by these microbes.

      The big hype today is preventing getting a flu, especially the H1N1 Swine flu. Viruses that cause a flu can live on objects for awhile, enough time for you to pick them up on your hands. Here are a few important tips in preventing cross-contamination:

       Wash your hands before eating.  This is really important out in public. Restaurant menus are handled by hundreds of people, so wash your hands after handling a menu or use hand sanitizer. Clean your hands after touching objects such as previously mentioned to stay healthy. Sensor-operated, hands free soap and towels are the best dispensers. You can use countertop models in the home.

     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.

     I am often asked the question  ‘ Where Are The touchless soap dispensers”  And I am asked more frequently now that it is the flu season.  People seem to be more aware of germs today and so they wonder why don’t public restrooms have these dispensers.

     Parents are concerned about schoolchildren being exposed to cross-contamination in school restrooms. College dorms are reporting sick students.  Industries and businesses cannot afford to have workers stay home because they are ill.

     So what is the answer to keeping people well?  We are told by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) That proper handwashing is the best defense against spreading germs. There are several steps in avoiding touching things that are contaminated.  They are using automatic, sensor-operated devices when in public restrooms. It starts with the sensor-operated toilet flusher, the touchless soap dispenser, then the automatic faucet and towel dispenser, and finally the exit with a sanitary door opener.

        Besides the fashionable gloves worn for style, or those that keep the hands warm, gloves otherwise serve as a hygienic  barrier .  In the food industry,  food handlers will wear gloves as a barrier between the germs on their hands and the food. A good example that we see is a Subway sandwich preparer.   This measure makes us feel protected from cross-contamination.

         When we visit the dentist or dental hygienist,  procedures are conducted wearing exam gloves. OSHA rules demand that gloves be worn by dental personnel when working on a patient.   Masks are also barriers worn by them.

          Medical technicians who handle blood wear gloves.  Operating room doctors, obstetricians, and their nurses all wear gloves.  Hospitals and nursing facilities now provide exam gloves for patient caregivers.

          Even homicide detectives wear gloves so as not to contaminate evidence with their own fingerprints.  So as you can see, gloves are a neccesity for good hygiene.

         Heaven forbid that one of us has to be a hospital patient. One never knows if that will happen.  On the other hand, many of us have been  visitors to a hospital patient. We are there to cheer-up the patient, often with a bouquet of flowers, box of candy, or reading material.

          But is that all that we bring with us?  Depending on what we were doing prior to the visit, and also where we were before we came, we actually harbor thousands of different microbes.  Many of them I might add are picked up with our hands.

          We bring germs from home or our work areas.  Phones, keyboards, doorknobs, elevator buttons, menus, and TV remotes are some of the more common objects that we touch.  The person that we are going to visit may be immune-compromised and could easily be affected by our germs.

           Many hospitals provide hand sanitizer dispensers for caregivers and visitors. They are even installing automatic soap dispensers.  Please make it a point to stop and use either hand sanitizer or wash your hands. This goes a long way in preventing cross-contamination. And of course, never sit on the patient’s bed.

     Most people do not know what is in a typical vaccine.  According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, besides the viral and bacterial RNA or DNA, vaccines can contain the following fillers:

      Aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, ammonium sulfate, amphotericin B, pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain, dog kidney, monkey kidney, chick emryo, chicken egg, duck egg, calf serum betapropiolactone, fetal bovine serum, formaldehyde, fromalin gelatin, MSG, neomycin, neomycin sulfate, phenol red indicator, phenoxyethanol(anti-freeze), potassium diphosphate, potassium monophosphate, polymyxin B, polysorbate 20, polysorbate 80, pig pancreatic hydrolysate of casein, residual MRC5 proteins, sorbitol, sucrose thimerosal)mercury), tri(n)butylphosphate, Vero cells, washed sheep red blood cells, and more.

        Those who are advised to have the vaccine should take note of these ingredients. Others who are not receiving the vaccine can practice prevention of cross-contamination. Disposable germicidal wipes and ultraviolet light can be used on hard objects. Proper handwashing and hand sanitizer are highly recommended  to stop the spread of the Swine flu virus and other flu viruses.

     Schools, college dorms, and daycare centers are  becoming breeding places for the flu and Swine flu.  The college students and older children  can be made aware of hand contamination and how to sneeze and cough without polluting the air with germs.  The younger children however need more to motivate them into good habits.

      A sneeze can propel a lot of germs into the air if not shielded. To a lesser extent, so can a  cough.  Flus are transmitted by contact with the flu virus in the air or by contaminated hands which then touch the mouth or nose.

      One easy way to help younger chidren stay healthy is to teach them about handwashing and hand sanitizers and to have them available.  As far as teaching proper sneezing and coughing, there is nothing better than a visual aide.  That’s where Germy Wormy comes in. The Germy Wormy disposable elbow sleeves have a picture of Germy Wormy who eats the germs that are sneezed or coughed. This is amusing to little kids so they try to sneeze and cough the right way. This can reduce the spread of infection from the children who might be coming down with the flu. Of course those who are sick should remain home.

A great part of spreading the flu around occurs because those who harbor the virus are out in public infecting others.  Some people are not yet aware that they are sick because symptoms have not presented fully. Others who know that they have a flu still go to work, to school, to the supermarket, and other places. I heard of a case yesterday where the employee was threatend with losing her job if she stayed home because she was sick.

Contagious people cause cross-contamination by touching things like doorknobs, phones, keyboards, elevator buttons, shopping carts, play facilities, and much more.  At times these infected people sneeze or cough into the air and on objects that others touch. They even travel out of the country carrying the virus with them.

Flu patients stay home.  See your doctor if necessary. Get as comfortable as you can. Wait until you are no longer contagious and your symptoms are gone.  This would diminish the number of flu cases.  The best tactic is to keep your immune system boosted and to switch to touchfree products such as automatic soap dispensers , but if you do succumb, be considerate and remain home.