Use enough hand sanitizer to cover your hands fully before it dries. Dirt, grease, food particles and other surface contaminants reduce how effective hand sanitizers are. Only use hand sanitizer if your hands are not visibly dirty. “But when a sink is not available, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, with at least 60% alcohol, can be used to kill the germs on your hands.” “Your first defense is going to be handwashing with soap and water,” Mellendorf said. However, since you can’t wash your hands after every encounter, try not to touch your face, eyes, nose and mouth to avoid introducing germs to your system. “We touch a lot of surfaces throughout the day – phones, computers, door handles – and so we want to wash our hands later to defend ourselves,” Mellendorf said. Also, wash your hands before tasks such as touching food, before using medical syringes or before changing contact lenses. It is important to wash hands after using the bathroom, after sneezing or coughing, after changing diapers or after taking out the trash. Germs can hide in jewelry and hard-to-clean crevices, including knuckles, between fingers, folds of the palm, and under the nails, so focus on scrubbing those areas.
See a demonstration of why handwashing is important at go./handwashing.įriction and running water lift germs off your hands and wash them down the drain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends these steps to washing hands: wet hands with water, apply soap, rub hands all over – including fingers, palms, back of hands and wrists – for at least 15 seconds, rinse hands with water, and dry with a clean towel or paper towel. Washing with soap and water reduces bacteria on your hands by 92% compared to washing with water, which only removes 77% of bacteria, according to a 2011 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
1 defense against germs,” said Caitlin Mellendorf, an Illinois Extension Nutrition & Wellness Educator serving DeWitt, Macon and Piatt counties. Take the time to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water to stay healthy and stop germs from spreading to others. When it comes to handwashing, don’t splash and dash.
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