To do or not to do?
View(s):Decisions, decisions: our lives are full of them, never less so than when it comes to our health. For the big decisions, there’s your doctor or a specialist who can help. But what about those niggly, everyday conundrums? We asked the experts for the most appropriate response. Their answers may surprise you (and might just stop you getting ill).
Should I wash my hands in a filthy sink?
It’s tempting not to want to touch anything in a really grotty public loo — even the taps.
However, you should always wash your hands — though not for the reasons you think, says Professor Val Curtis, director of the Environmental Health Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
‘After you go to the loo, the main reason to wash your hands is to help prevent other people getting sick,’ she explains.
‘The bugs that may be on your hands, such as E.coli which can cause food poisoning, are from your body — indigenous to you — and so will not make you ill. But they could make other people you then come into contact with ill.
‘If everyone stopped washing their hands after using the bathroom, it would be a disaster for public health.So it’s better to wash your hands, irrespective of the state of the bathroom.‘Also, most of the bugs that make you sick die very quickly in the open, so it is unlikely that any harmful germs will be living on a tap.’
If you’re about to eat, then again, it is better to wash your hands.Professor Curtis says: ‘Before you eat, you wash your hands because you are trying to get rid of any germs you may have picked up from other people, which could feasibly make you ill.
‘So, again, whatever the state of the bathroom, it is better to wash your hands than not.’
Should I use soap in a public loo?
As sinister as it may look, that greying, cracked bar of soap often found in public bathrooms is unlikely to do you any harm.
‘Yes, there will be germs on the soap, but soap is not a conducive environment for the bacteria that are likely to make you ill,’ says Professor Curtis.
‘Most harmful germs need a lot of water and warmth to flourish and multiply, and the moisture in the cracks of a soap bar is likely to be a highly concentrated soap solution.’
She says this will probably destroy any germ cells living there by osmosis — where fluid is pulled into a more concentrated environment.
So even faced with a truly ancient bar of soap, it is still a good idea to use it.
‘A soap molecule has two ends — one locks on to dirt and the other locks on to water — which is why when you wash your hands with soap, it strips away the dirt and bacteria on your hands,’ adds Professor Curtis.
Can I borrow a toothbrush?
Neither borrowing a toothbrush, nor using your finger to ‘brush’ your teeth, is advisable, says Professor Damien Walmsley, of the British Dental Association. ‘A toothbrush will be full of bacteria from another person’s mouth — and if someone has gum disease or bleeding gums, there maybe blood-borne bacteria, too.
‘So I wouldn’t recommend using someone else’s, even if you are married to them. And swishing it under the tap won’t help.
‘But I don’t like the idea of using your finger, either. It isn’t going to clean the teeth effectively, and you have to be careful, as you could scratch your gums.’
He adds: ‘I think you would be better off leaving it — going for 24 to 48 hours without cleaning your teeth, so long as it’s a one-off, is not going to cause any long-term harm.‘Swigging with mouthwash or chewing on gum will help to freshen breath, and a drink of water can help dislodge large bits of food stuck between the teeth — but the toothbrush is a wonderful invention and it can’t really be replaced.’
Use a wet towel- or wipe my hands on my trouser?
Leaving your hands wet is not an option: germs are more likely to stick to damp hands, so if you touch something unpleasant on your way out of the bathroom, the chances are you will take it with you.
But don’t use a soggy towel. ‘I dread to think what you might find lurking on a towel in a public bathroom,’ says Dr Lisa Ackerley, an environmental health expert.
A damp towel is a perfect environment for bacteria to thrive in — there is moisture and a bathroom is often warm, which bacteria love, and there is also food for them in the form of dead skin cells.
By contrast, says Dr Ackerley, wiping your hands down your trousers would ‘probably result in far less germ transfer’.
But it’s not just hand towels in public bathrooms that you need to be wary of. A 2013 study from the University of Arizona found E.coli present in more than a quarter of the household towels they tested.
The answer? Wash them regularly and don’t share towels. (C) Daily Mail, UK