Just 5 per cent of those using the bathroom wash their hands long enough to kill the germs, says new study. The numbers are quite bad —33 per cent didn’t use soap and 10 per cent didn’t wash their hands at all. Men were seen to be most careless in this regard.
The study by Michigan State University, is based on observations of 3,749 people in public restrooms.
“These findings were surprising to us because past research suggested that proper hand washing is occurring at a much higher rate,” said Carl Borchgrevink, associate professor of hospitality business and lead investigator on the study.
Usually a time of 15 to 20 seconds of vigorous hand washing with soap and water is required to effectively kill the germs, the CDC says, yet the study found that people wash their hands, on average, for about 6 seconds.
The study is one of the first to take into account factors such as duration of the hand washing and whether people used soap.