This reminds me of a sign I saw at a restaurant bathroom recently.
There are plenty of ways to make this better. Most of it’s theater because there’s nothing really wrong with touching the door, but some of the ways are not even expensive to make it comfortable for germaphobes.
Single bathroom doors always swing out
Copper-plate the handles
If you have to swing in, add a foot handle.
Plenty of stuff wrong with touching the door, considering how many people don’t wash their hands…
What else do they touch? How many are employees? The door is only gross because you know it’s being touched. EVERYTHING is being touched, and something like 50% of people don’t wash their hands properly or at all.
Yeah that’s why you don’t touch other stuff either, because it’s all gross. But at least if you go to the bathroom to wash your hands, you should be able to like eat your lunch after
The only reason touching doorknobs is gross is because people don’t wash their hands.
Unless you’re willing to opt in to some kinda bathroom panopticon that locks the bathroom until everyone trying to leave has properly washed their hands, it’s probably best to just avoid a knobbed door.
Those same people are touching everything else in the store/world. The employees have touched every item on the floor. half of those don’t wash their hands. The door only feels gross because you have no doubt.
That’s why I try not to touch most things with my hands.
I should also order more handkerchiefs
Mythbusters did a segment that showed the air dryers are more likely to spread germs. So it’s just awful all around
Environmental Health Officer here… I had a classmate who did a study on this, specifically the Dyson-type where you stick your hands in downwards.
Next time, take a look at what’s there in the 2mm gap on the bottom inside where the water, etc. collects, and where the forced air blows all that material. Remember to not breathe.
There’s a reason why we direct food businesses to use paper towels in the kitchen, not hand dryers. Also, because ain’t nobody got time to properly wash their hands for 30 seconds and then stand there completely drying their hands when they have 20+ chits on the go.
Edit: Forgot to mention, the majority of people don’t know how to wash their hands properly, especially under the nails (both men and women). They’ve just used the hand dryer. Now you use the hand dryer. Multiply that by how many days it is before these things actually get cleaned and sanitised only to be contaminated again by the first user until the next clean and sanitise, if ever. Humans are filthy. 💀
If they get cleaned and sanitized.
I highly doubt they do. They probably just get tested and tagged, and maybe to make sure the filters are cleaned/replaced. Otherwise, I really don’t know. Do the daily cleaners even wipe those down? I’ve more often seen people cleaning the traffic lights (3 times in my entire life) than I see anyone go near a hand dryer with a cloth (none).
The Dyson dryers certainly don’t get wiped. I’ve never seen one that wasn’t caked in some sort of gunk.
There’s a reason they removed them all in my country during covid and they never came back.
Do you guys still have them?Australia, yes. I especially hate the ones that have a button to turn on and have so little power that if you rubbed your hands together fast enough, they’d dry faster via friction than using the dryer.
Thank goodness we have takeaway towels dangling all over our bodies.
At least in your case it’s the more hygienic option.
Still have them all over the place in the US 🫠
Why am i not surprised…
The best is no door at all - like at airports where there’s just a barrier wall you have to walk around. I was about to say it’s not something you can do in every setting, but that’s only because we aren’t willing to dedicate the space to it.
Shout out to S shaped hallway with no doors 😭you’re the real mvp
Hey I’m an athlete but these foot pull doors are still extremely difficult. It strains your calf muscles, your hamstrings, your kegels, and your core. Opening heavy restroom doors with this spiky foot pull is not easy or fun or comfortable at all.
Our office has these and it’s always been p. easy to open them. No idea why there is a discrepancy. Maybe something about the balance of the door?
I never have a problem and I’m lazy with a large beer belly.
These make more sense, tbh:
Yeah the one where we’re supposed to put our forearm through the hook. But you know people would just use their bare bacteria-ridden hands to pull that. Defeating the purpose of the germ-free handle.
It’s still something you can easily grab with your shirt or (ideally) jacket. That’s almost as good as if you were wearing gloves after washing your hands
This is why I love those things at the bottom of the door that lets you open the door with your foot.
Yes and I find it funny that I see them in some of the cheapest, bars & restaurants.
Sit at a bar and have $3 beer, there’s a foot grab.
Sit at a sushi bar and get $150 bottle of sake, no foot grab. Bizzaro.
True, except in this picture, you have to pull the door to get out.
I know … and unlock the door too!!! So I would only do that after and before i wash my hands.
I’ve had contamination OCD for the majority of my life, and this shit has been torture for me.
I’ve been trying to get a ADA accommodation to work from home because my job is in software, but the bastards over at HR think that clorox wipes and a dedicated cube will solve this shit. It’s irritating as fuck that nobody in charge seems capable of piecing basic hygiene together.
Sounds like someone needs a motivational metaphor to make HR feel what it’s like to sit in a very uncomfortable situation, such as a stinkbomb in their office.
Raw fish in the air ducts is IMO a better choice
Grab the handle with your butt cheeks. it’s a talent/skill you can hone
I use my scrotum like an oven mitt
Auspicious
Delicious.
i didn’t know we had someone blessed by the tanuki in our midst
I personally use my dick to whip it like Indiana Jones.
good thing i’m drop ball world champion then
Touchless sinks are the worst fucking tech ever. Shit never works, and when it does, it never gives you enough water to get a good hand wash
Even just a button with a timer you can mash is better
They’re also terrible at recognition if you happen to have a darker complexion.
And it never gives you warm water
Oh that part is easy! Just hold the water in your mouth until it’s warm then dribble it onto your hands!
You have to ask nicely!
I mean unless the air blowing on your hands was freshly filtered and uv sterilized that is going to be an issue to.
i have lost mucho sleep over the fact that even holding my breath while using an air dryer doesn’t prevent poop gems being blasted into my pores 💀
poop gems
At least they’re pretty.
poop gems
The fecal mist lingering around is real. That’s why one should always flush with a closed lid.
You ever seen an airtight toilet lid? That ain’t doing shit against aerosolized fecal particulates. Don’t worry though, no one’s gets sick just breathing the air in a bathroom, most public toilets in America don’t even have lids. If “fecal mist” was an actual health risk, the science would be well in by now, the patterns would be unavoidable and ubiquitous. Maybe if you lick the walls where the bathroom air condensates you might get sick, but most people are reasonable enough not to do that just by instinct.
Thats it-- i’m adding weatherstripping under my toilet seat
Mythbusters tested this. With the lid open or closed, poop particles were detectable in every room of a house after a flush. The lid does nothing.
And eyes and nose and ears.
At some point you’ll need to settle on an acceptable level of germs or lose your mind totally
This is true. The Mythbusters episodes about double dipping tortilla chips in salsa and about leaving your toothbrush in the bathroom convinced me that the entire world is covered in an invisible layer of poo and there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ve got to just try to accept it.
this is kinda funny because I was in microbiology and you rarely saw anyone there who was middle ground with germs. The knowledge either made them super casual about it or super rigid. I worked in labs where the professor kept his zip locked sandwich from home in the fridge that had the salmonella samples. I would have my dews in there but I did wipe them down with 95% ethanol before drinking.
Those Dyson hand dryers are disgusting.
This wouldn’t be a problem if people actually washed their hands.
I’ve witness a lot of people won’t wash their hands after taking a piss. In fact some of them take a shit and just walk out without washing hands. These people then touch doors, windows, counters, food plates, appliances, evey fucking common surface… People in the office, corporate buildings, people in suits… so yeah, fuck people, they’re fucking disgusting.
Less than 5% properly wash. We learned NOTHING from COVID. In fact, hygiene is even worse now.
I agree, same goes for vaccinations, people are now much less likely to vaccinate their kids, which may lead to catastrophic consequences…
Still would accumulate toilet aerosols over time, and would still be gross. The real solution is foot handles or no door
But then transgender ninjas can just walk in.
I take it the janitors wash the door handle regularly, but yeah, automatic door would probably be better.
But we don’t.
Who the fuck is “we”!?
Society
I refuse to associate with hand non-washers… Perchance, hermitage.
Problem is you never know who it is, we shake hands with some one, there is a pretty strong chance they haven’t washed hands since a while, before peeing, after luneating sandwich. You never know. You just assume society is civil enough that people will.
I’ve seen it many times at my job… People go to the bathroom (number 2, by the way!!!) and just walk straight out of the door. Not even water, certainly no soap, just walk out of the bathroom. It’s genuinely disturbing… Oh well!
People.
What a bunch of bastards.
One of my favourite anime characters of all time is named Remon :D She washes her hands, I’m sure…
Turns out businesses don’t care about cleanliness or your safety beyond the point where it might affect their bottom line and just install touchless sinks and hand dryers to save money on water and paper towels
Using wads of paper towel and leaving the tap open waste resources. This is a prime example where being economical equates to being ecological.
i work in a business with unlimited access to paper towels, it saddens me how much i have to throw away unused ones
Any handle or surface in public areas, assume the person that handled it before you had just finished taking a monster shit and skipped the handwashing before rubbing their pathogen-factories all over it. Photo in OP, there’s not really a good option, so you’re in damage control mode… check for toilet seat liners that some public restrooms stock and grab one of them? At least that’s something the other people handle before getting shit all over their hands.
One of the nastiest assignments I’ve had working in a hospital was ‘Handwashing Monitor’. And let me tell you, I’ve debrided infected wounds; wiped maggots out of some fucker’s pannus; cleaned up every bodily fluid our bodies are capable of cranking out from the floor, walls, and sometimes ceiling; helped amputate limbs that were literally rotten to the bone, and wiped a cumulative mile or two of ass crack…
…apply to nursing school today!!..
…but anyway, Handwashing Monitor. It is beyond appalling the number of patients, visitors, techs, nurses, doctors, housekeepers, you name it… who’d go in and out of patient rooms without performing hand hygiene; or they’d wash their hands, but for like half a second; or not use soap; or turn the faucet on with their grimy-ass hands, do a thorough handwash, then immediately contaminate themselves by grabbing that same dirty-ass faucet with their bare hands to turn it off. The thing that made that position take the crown above all the other examples I gave in the previous paragraph was the realization that the community who is THE single most painfully aware of pathogens and their origins / mechanism of spreading… can’t even wash their fucking hands!
…which brings us back to my opening sentence: it’s not advice on sheer ick factor, but a reasonable assumption based on directly observed evidence.
And no, this wasn’t just a particularly icky hospital: I’ve worked in multiple states for multiple organizations/facilities, and to this day get eye-rolls for asking people to re-wash or even first-wash their hands.
We nasty. Be a germaphobe. End rant.
Keep fighting the good fight. Many years married to a germ conscious nurse, and I think I have a pretty good routine now but still feel like borderline OCD and go through a gallon of hand soap a month.
Thanks, Murse. TIL
Pannus is an abnormal layer of tissue that can form in various parts of the body, often associated with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, where it can damage joints.
Pannus? I’m talking about the ‘apron’ of abdominal tissue that hangs in front of morbidly obese people. Under those things there’s often a lot of skin breakdown and infection - and in one of my patients, maggot infestation - because it becomes a progressively harder place to keep clean as they pack on more weight, then come to the ER once it looks like something from a zombie movie.
Side note for my larger friends reading this: don’t neglect those nooks and crannies when performing hygiene! Dry it thoroughly, and keep it dry with powder or by keeping a layer of fabric in between areas with a fold so it’s not skin-on-skin. Often those first stages of an infection aren’t painful or anything, so by the time it’s actually bugging you, it’s BAD! Cleaning it can be tricky if your reach is limited, but you can get creative with it - one of my patients would bring a clean towel into the shower, soak it with soapy water, and kinda ‘floss’ into those folds. Dude was pushing 500 lbs, but never had skin issues. Lots of other issues, but he had hygiene down to a science.
Quick search seems to suggest you mean Panniculus, which sounds and reads similar enough that Wikipedia has a “not to be confused with” for Pannus.
Also, TIL that piece has an actual name.
Looks like they’re interchangeable. In a clinical setting I’ve only ever used or heard it called a pannus. We even stock “pannus retractors” (basically a sticker with Velcro on the back - sticker part slaps onto the pannus, whole thing gets pushed wherever you need it, then Velcro straps connect to that to hold it on place).
This might be a regional thing, too - chips vs fries kind of situation. Not sure where you’re posting from; I’m in that weird unstable area with all the guns that some orange neanderthal has been busy raping for the last couple of years.
I thought that was their way of saying “wiped maggots out of some fucker’s penis” and cringed hard.
This thread renforces my theory that hygienism is a bastard of capitalism. So much useless worries but in the same time so lucrative
