Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Wayang again?



Check out the differences between the Hand Washing Steps recommended by Singapore and the World Health Organization (WHO)
Singapore recommends the 7 steps technique and it ends with “rinse and dry thoroughly”.

WHO specify after the soaping, you rinse your hand in running water (Step 8 Blue), dry with a single use paper towel (Step 9 Blue) and use the towel to turn off the faucet (Step 10 Blue).

I don’t know about you, but I suspect Singapore deliberate left out the last 3 crucial parts.

Why? Firstly almost all faucet in public toilets are either those “push button” type or if you are lucky those infra-red sensor type.

If you get those infra-red sensor type faucet and you Step 10 of WHO recommendation is no necessary.

HOWEVER, if you got those push button type then you know these stupid faucet sometime only allow water to run from 0.01s – 5s with each push. So you have to keep pressing the damn button with you WASHED hands to keep the water running. So you have washed you hands for nothing.

Also note WHO states to dry you hand with a disposable towel, as it has been shown that the use of a towel is a necessary part of effective contaminant removal, since the washing action separates the contaminants from the skin but does not completely flush them from the skin - removing the excess water (with the towel) also removes the suspended contaminants.

When you look at the pubic toilets in Singaore we don’t see many that provide disposable towels. Most only has those hot air blower which studies has shows are a hotbed for bacterials since it is warm in a moist enviroment.

Hand washing promotion? Some even go as far as to give out a car to encourage people to wash their hands but are we just have the habit of doing it half way?

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