Use Soap to wash your Hands

Hands Up for Health!

Keep your hands clean and stop infection spreading

Washing with Marble Hill's Neem Oil Soap

Good old-fashioned soap and water received a boost last month from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. It describes hand washing as being like a “DIY Vaccine”.

 Involving only five simple steps – Wet, Lather, Scrub, Rinse and Dry this most basic of activities can help reduce the spread of not only diarrhea-type diseases but also respiratory illness such as ‘flu, helping you and everyone around you to stay healthy. Getting into the habit of regular effective handwashing is one of the best ways to keep your hands free of germs so that you reduce your own likelihood of getting sick and also the risk of you spreading germs and disease around to other people.

A detailed study revealed that using bar soap and clean running water was the most effective way to clean hands. There was no benefit seen from using antibacterial products or even hot water. There is some suggestion that hot water might actually be unhelpful as it is more likely to cause skin irritation.

When Should I wash my Hands?

The CDC report lists ten indicators for thorough handwashing:

1. Before, during and after preparing food

2. Before eating food

3. Before and after caring for someone who is sick

4. Before and after treating a cut or wound

5. After using the toilet

6. After changing nappies or cleaning a child’s bottom

7. After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing

8. After touching animals, animal feed or animal waste

9. After handling pet food or pet treats

10. After handling rubbish

How?

Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap and apply bar soap.

Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under the nails.

Scrub your hands for 20 seconds. This does not mean that you need to use a brush. It means the rubbing of your fingers and hands in a methodical way ensuring that all surfaces are rubbed with soap and water. (I have added a link to a very good New Zealand website on hand hygiene at the end of this article).

Humming “Happy Birthday “twice is a good guide to time.

Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.

Dry thoroughly using a clean towel or air dry.

How can I clean my hands if I don’t have access to bar soap and clean running water?

Washing with   soap and water is the best way to clean your hands, but if they are not available an alcohol-based sanitizer is an option.

A 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations but they do not kill all germs and if hands are visibly dirty or greasy their effectiveness is limited. To get the best out of hand sanitisers, apply the product to the palm of one hand and then rub your hands together, making sure the whole surface of hands and fingers are coated until your hands are dry.

While hand sanitisers are very convenient it has been shown that those alcohol based products with an alcohol concentration of 60% or over are more effective than non alcohol based or lower concentration products.

Soap and water are better at reducing or inactivating more germs than sanitisers, including serious types such as Clostridium Difficile, Cryptosporidium and norovirus.

Drying properly helps prevent sore hands

Having washed your hands it is important to dry them thoroughly to prevent irritation and cracking or “hacks”. Many people complain of dryness and soreness on the backs of their hands which can be very itchy and unsightly. Surprisingly enough this is often not a result of allergy or eczema but simply a failure to dry the backs of the hands properly after washing.

We often feel that the washing is the important part and that we can rush the drying stage  but it is important to use a dry towel, not a manky wet one which hardly dries at all and may indeed be full of germs. Do not focus solely on the palms and fingers but extend your drying to the backs of your hands and all the areas left wet after washing so that they are not left damp and vulnerable to the cold which can cause inflammation.

When is soap not a soap?

While many of us call bottled hand and bodywash products “liquid soaps”, they are in fact “syndets” which is the user-friendly term coined by the chemical industry for synthetic detergents, not unlike washing-up liquid.

The Centre for Disease Control specifies the use of soap for handwashing and illustrates its instructions with bar soaps. Soap is recognized by the CDC as being the most effective agent for hand cleansing.

Before the introduction of these liquid wash products dermatitis was much more rarely seen than it is now. The sale of moisturisers has rocketed since syndets were introduced.

Some solid cleansers which look like bar soaps also contain syndets so be aware.

Helpful websites: This is a link to a very well laid-out website with good detailed diagrams showing the best way to wash your hands http://www.handhygiene.org.nz  You can of course also view Marble Hill’s website at www.marblehillonline.co.uk