This type of sign seems to be popping up in bathrooms all over the place these days. Detailed instructions on how you ought to wash your hands. Now, I know a lot of people choose not to wash their hands when they finish using the toilet, but do we really think it is from a lack of knowledge?

That is the general question.  Now, specifically relating to the instructions on this sign:

1. Do we expect people to carry around fingernail brushes with them? If not, are we providing them? If we are providing them, would it ever be more sanitary to use a communal fingernail brush than to just work the soap around your nails as much as possible by hand?
2. Doesn’t washing your hands “up to your elbows” seem a bit much? If people are really not washing their hands at all, don’t we think a slightly easier to complete ask is in order?

Your thoughts please.

I have noticed lately that  girls, when in a public bathroom and at a sink that is not close to the soap dispenser will “wash” their hands using just water.

Having noticed it once, I now seem to see it everywhere.

Is this just a disgusting habit of the people in my locality or does this occur everywhere? I hope you can help clear up the confusion.

We’ve written quite a bit about washing hands.  We always get a great response from our community and I am sure we can clear this up as well. So good reader, what do you think? Is it a distance-from-soap-dispenser based decision that drives this behavior?

From a guy’s perspective I can assure you that “no hand washing” and “water-only hand washing” is quite prevalent everywhere I’ve been in the world.

Though I am a proponent of thorough and soap-enhanced hand washing, I must admit that the disgusting state in which many establishments keep their bathrooms frequently makes me wonder if my hands aren’t getting MORE dirty by touching the faucet handle and soap dispensers.

Chapter One from Spain:

Our reader comments:
This sign was in the bathroom on the high speed train from Barcelona to Madrid.  Does anyone really need instructions on how to wash their hands?

And why the need for such detail?  Guess you can’t claim you don’t know how any more.  Perhaps the professional hand washers we reported on ought to expand to Spain.

What’s the equivalent phrase for “step-by-step instructions,” but for hands?

* Does anyone ever say “with further ado”?

(For accessibility reasons, here’s the content of the sign:
Common decency and the state law health and safety code require that you wash your hands before leaving this room to resume work.)

The sign was posted above the sink in a bathroom in Half-Moon Bay California.

Still, while I may not know how wide-spread this “non-hand-washing” epidemic is spread, I can provide you with one useful piece of info. On Southport Avenue in Chicago you can find a store which offers “expert handwashing” for those folks that need a little help or instruction. Feel free to refer people.

Why, you ask?

Well, because they make the best hot-air hand dryer in the world. No two ways about it. Every time I go to wash my hands in a public loo, be it in a pub, in a restaurant or in a train station, when I see that swirling maroon logo, I know that I can count on dry hands, dried in a reasonable time frame. I also know that I won’t be needing that final dry-my-hands-on-my-trousers wipe to get that last bit of moisture off.

Now, I am no engineer, that’s for sure. But you would have thought that certainly some other company might be able to develop a reasonably comparable hot-air hand dryer. But alas no, for I have yet to encounter any other make of hand dryer that comes close to the quality of World Dryer. You just can’t beat a World Dryer for temperature, volume of air flow, consistency of air flow and duration of dry time. They truly are the world’s best.

And you what brings a real glow of pride to my heart when I see a World Dryer in action? The knowledge that World Dryer is made right in my home state, Illinois. That’s Land of Lincoln pride, taking the world by storm, one loo at a time!