Good hand hygiene is extremely important. Research from the CDC found that around 40% of foodborne illnesses are spread by hand germs, and around 80% of all communicable illnesses are spread by touch.
So it is very important to wash your hands every day. In fact, there is even a global Handwashing Day in October to help raise awareness for the issue – http://www.globalhandwashingday.org. Yet despite this, many people don’t wash their hands enough – or if they do, they don’t always wash them properly.
Here’s how to wash your hands properly, and there are also some tips to help your hands stay clean all day.
How to wash your hands
If you want to make sure that your hands are always completely clean after washing them, you should make sure that you wash them for at least 20 seconds. This gives you enough time to properly wash the whole hand, including the fingers. You should also use running water (rather than a basin of still water), as this is much more hygienic.
It is also important to be aware that washing your hands with water alone isn’t enough; you should also use soap to kill the bacteria on your hands.
Keeping clean at work
If you own a bathroom in a public building and you want to make sure people are washing their hands properly, consider hiring washroom services Gloucestershire has companies to help with simple hygiene solutions.
It is also important to ensure that employees know how to wash their hands properly. You can help with this by putting up posters and signs that encourage proper hand washing, and you should always make sure that the bathrooms are stocked with soap and towels (or hand dryers, which are actually more hygienic than towels). This means that people are less likely to get sick while they are at work.
Finally, you can improve the appearance of washrooms at work so that employees don’t feel like they have to rush in and out.
It doesn’t have to be hard work
Hand washing can seem like a big task to some people, especially young children, but it is very important to encourage the people around you to wash their hands throughout the day. This vastly reduces the chances of people getting sick while they are in the building.