I’m not writing this blog post to call anyone out, but rather to bring awareness to a topic that I believe a great deal of people undermine. Since I’ve been here at Penn State and since I’ve been living in close living quarters, I’ve noticed that while people aren’t necessarily unhygienic, they fail to make the simple move to wash their hands in the restroom. I have seen far too many individuals walk out of the restroom on my floor without even glancing at the sinks. I remember always being told to wash my hands thoroughly and frequently as a kid, especially in the fall and winter when bacteria seems to be floating around everywhere. And I don’t think I was the only one that was told this. As the initial ‘plague’ has just passed through campus, I have found myself being very curious to know what degree hand-washing actually plays in the overall health and wellness of our campus. 
A study was conducted during a fall semester at the University of Colorado at Boulder campus to discover if hand-washing did play an active role in the health of college students. 430 students recruited from four separate residence halls were split into a control group and a product group. To test their hypothesis, researchers placed hand-sanitizing stations throughout every room, restroom, and dining hall for the product group. Researchers measured the difference in reported symptoms of the product group, along with illness rates, and days absent from class.
What the researchers wanted to find was that those who didn’t increase their hand-washing habits decreased their likelihood of developing upper respiratory illness and increased their overall wellness and class attendance. The researchers did, in fact, find that this hypothesis held true but they didn’t realize how significant of a difference there would be between the product groups and control groups. In the end, the researchers discovered that reductions in upper respiratory illness reduced anywhere from roughly 14% to 40%. They also found a 20% increase in overall wellness. Finally, their study discovered that the product group missed classes 43% less of the time. These statistics aren’t to be ignored; they bring concrete proof that hand hygiene is mandatory in the context of college if a healthy environment is to be maintained.
Looking at the visual above, it’s astonishing to think about the number of Americans who say they practice good hand hygiene yet who have also witnessed other individuals leaving restrooms without washing their hands. To put it simply: who likes to get sick? I’ve been on the verge of catching whatever has been making it’s way around campus, so washing my hands frequently has been a top priority to hopefully avoid sickness. Consequently, I haven’t gotten sick yet. Is this a legitimate correlation? I believe it is.
So the next time you wash your hands, I dare you to sing “Happy Birthday” out loud. Think through the way you were taught to wash your hands as a kid, and bring back the trend. Make the other person in the restroom think to themselves that maybe washing their hands before leaving is a good idea. It may seem petty or insignificant, but an action as simple as this could prevent the next plague from taking students out all over campus. When you’re looking at it this way, you’re considering the health of not just yourself, but the health of everyone you come in contact with.
Think bigger, and wash those hands.
Mathur, P. (2011, November). Hand hygiene: Back to the basics of infection control. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 134(5), 611-620. Retrieved October 9, 2016, from US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.
I agree, living in dorms this year, I have seen so many girls walk out of the bathroom and not wash their hands. Looking at this study, I was quite surprised with how many people did not wash their hands after using the restroom. Becoming popular today is skipping the ordinary soap and water, and reaching for hand sanitizer instead. This is mainly for convenience in todays busy world. But more and more you see that hand sanitizer is not as good for you as washing your hands the “old fashioned way”. Here is an article listing the cons of using hand sanitizer. opposed to using soap and water to wash your hands http://www.livestrong.com/article/94967-disadvantages-hand-sanitizers/
I’ve seen this issue way too much, and especially coming from someone who works in the food industry, it is especially important for employees to maintain cleanliness when handling food. When I need to switch from working the register and handling money, cards, and other items that have been repeatedly used by different people, I always make sure to first wash my hands before going to serve and handle food. This helps so much with cutting the risk of bacteria being transferred further. Washing your hands often, and more importantly, CORRECTLY, makes it much harder for sickness to pass on. This is the CDC guide for hand-washing within a restaurant setting.
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/ehsnet/plain_language/food-worker-handwashing-restaurant-factors.htm
Living in the dorms this year and last, I noticed this rather gross trend myself. I don’t know if it was because people were too lazy, didn’t want to have to wait to dry their hands, or were in a rush, I never understood why you couldn’t take the moment to help your health as well as those around you. When talking about the experiment conducted, I wonder if the controlled group was told not to wash their hands, or simply if the frequent hand sanitizers in the product group that was the method for this experiment. It seems unethical to tell the control group to not wash their hands because then they are more likely to get sick, i.e inflicting pain on people. Also, since your question specifically talks about hand washing, I wonder if it can be related to the use of hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is much quicker and possibly does a better job of sanitation. Because the product group used more of that product, is it far to say they were less sick because they washed their hands? Overall I totally agree we all should be washing our hands. Now the question pertains to which is better, washing hands or using hand sanitizer? Here is an article from the health care providers Blue Shield for the difference between the two https://connect.bcbsil.com/health-and-wellness/b/weblog/archive/2015/12/21/soap-vs-sanitizer-is-there-a-hands-down-winner-for-getting-clean