Your Health is in your clean hands
Why should I wash my hands?
Although sneezing and coughing can spread cold germs into the air, most colds are caught and spread by germs on people's hands. If these germs are on your hands, touching your mouth or nose when you eat, sneeze or cough can make you sick. Touching a doorknob or other surfaces, handling a public transport hand rail or shaking hands can spread germs to others.
Critical moments for hand washing are after using the toilet or cleaning a child, or after any other contact with excreta and before handling food.
When should I wash my hands?
Always wash your hands before you:
- Touch or serve food
- Eat or drink
- Put in or take out contact lenses
- Treat a cut, scrape, burn or blister
- Take care of someone who is sick
- Start your tasks at work
- Change tasks - go from one thing to another.
Always wash your hands after you have:
- Been to the bathroom
- Helped someone else use the bathroom
- Changed a nappy
- Coughed, sneezed, blown your nose or wiped a child's nose
- Smoked or touched your hair or face
- Handled uncooked food, especially raw meat, poultry, fish or eggs
- Handled garbage
- Touched an animal or cleaned up animal waste
- Taken care of someone who is sick or injured
- Used public transport.
What is the best way to wash my hands?
Proper hand washing requires soap and a small amount of water. Using soap breaks down the grease and dirt that carry most germs, facilitating the rubbing and friction that dislodges them, and leaves a pleasant fragrance. With proper use, all soaps are effective at rinsing away disease-causing germs.
- Wet your hands with running water
- Lather with soap and scrub between fingers, on the back of your hands and under nails. Wash for at least 20 seconds or as long as it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" to yourself twice
- Dry hands with a paper towel/roller towel.
Hand washing is the 20-second solution to protecting yourself from diseases, so remember to use soap, wash often, and wash long enough. Your health is in your clean hands!
Page Created: 20 January 2011
