NATIONAL HAND WASHING AWARENESS WEEK
The first week of December is National Hand Washing Awareness Week… You know what that means?! It’s time to get hygienic, people! Making a habit of good hand hygiene is an easy, effective way to prevent infections and sicknesses. If you’re someone that chooses to skip the hand washing once in a while, read these mind blowing statistics and you might think again next time!
- 80% of communicable diseases can be transferred by touch (person-to-person contact).
- Washing your hands a few times a day can reduce diarrhea rates by 40%.
- Touching your face with dirty hands spreads sicknesses pneumonia, a cold, and the flu.
- Pneumonia is the number one cause of childhood death, and is preventable by regular hand washing.
- The two most important times to wash your hands are before and after preparing food, and after going to the bathroom.
- Less than 75% of women and less than 50% of men wash their hands after using the bathroom
- When you flush a toilet with the seat up, a mist containing bacteria is spread over about 6 square meters. Even worse… Sinks in public bathrooms are 90% covered in this bacteria.
- The ideal amount of time to wash your hands is 30 seconds, but 15 is recommended at the very least.
- Most bacteria on our hands is under our fingernails, so when you’re washing, be sure to scrub underneath them.
- Damp hands are 1,000 times more likely to spread bacteria than dry hands, yet only 20% of people dry their hands after they wash them.
- Reusable cloth towels have millions of bacteria in their fibers. Using disposable paper towels is the cleanest way to dry your hands.
- Studies show that people who wash their hands have 24% less sick days because of respiratory illness, and 51% fewer sick days due to a sick stomach.
Are you grossed out yet!? Sorry, but we had to let you know.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Make it a point to wash your hands several times a day, and use #NationalHandWashingWeek to post on social media to spread the word (but not the germs)! This is a great one to post about on social media because the more your friends and family wash their hands, the safer from illnesses you’ll all be!
HISTORY
National Hand Washing Awareness Week is sponsored by Henry the Hand Foundation, and reminds us to be vigilant about hand-washing, especially this time of year because it’s cold and flu season!
