Watch – and Wash – Your Hands!
From a personal health perspective, I was fortunate in my choice of career… since I worked with bacteria, viruses, animal blood/tissue samples and a large number of hazardous chemicals, I rapidly unlearned certain involuntary gestures, like unconsciously scratching my nose, brushing the hair away from my face and/or rubbing my eyes. My hands had to be kept away from my face at ALL times when gloved and/or gowned. It was especially annoying when working within a higher level biohaz lab, as there was NO way to – say – blow my nose, without going through a specified decontamination process. Sometimes it was easier to just endure it… a disposable surgical mask hides a multitude of sins. 😉
Why bring this up? It’s almost that time of the year again… cold and flu season is nigh. Heck, if you count the current Swine Flu epidemic, you could say that it’s here already. And both respiratory and enteric viruses are frequently spread… from hand to mouth/nose/eyes. In other words, handling your face can MATTER – a lot – to your health. The info in this NYT article is especially revealing:
…one of the most powerful weapons against the new H1N1 virus is summed up in a three-word phrase you first heard from your mother: wash your hands.
A host of recent studies have highlighted the importance and the scientific underpinning of this most basic hygiene measure. One of the most graphic was done at the University of California, Berkeley, where researchers focused video cameras on 10 college students as they read and typed on their laptops.
The scientists counted the times the students touched their faces, documenting every lip scratch, eye rub and nose pick. On average, the students touched their eyes, noses and lips 47 times during a three-hour period, once every four minutes.
Hand-to-face contact has a surprising impact on health. Germs can enter the body through breaks in the skin or through the membranes of the eyes, mouth and nose.
The eyes appear to be a particularly vulnerable port of entry for viral infections, said Mark Nicas, a professor of environmental health sciences at Berkeley. Using mathematical models, Dr. Nicas and colleagues estimated that in homes, schools and dorms, hand-to-face contact appears to account for about one-third of the risk of flu infection, according to a report this month in the journal Risk Analysis.
Thanks to the fact that I don’t have a face-touching habit, I manage to stay extremely healthy… it’s rare for me to catch a cold and even rarer to contract the “24 hour flu” or other enteric “bugs”. But it’s equally rare for people to be this fastidious – for example, the students in the study discussed above touched their faces approx. once every 4 minutes! I notice this behavior all the time in places that are “high risk”, too, like at the grocery store, my daughter’s school, and – of course – the gym.
The gym is an especially risky place. Let’s face it, it’s filthy: countless people throughout the day grip the dumbbells, barbells and handles on the various machines. No matter how often the equipment is wiped down, there’s no way to keep the surfaces (especially those knurled bars) clean and (relatively) germ-free. Yet people seem oblivious to the risk: I often see them rubbing the sweat off their faces with their hands, fumbling with the mouthpieces of their water bottles, or popping a stick of gum into their mouths.
Needless to state, I NEVER leave the gym without thoroughly scrubbing my grubby paws, and I repeat the process when I get home. Ditto other public areas: supermarkets/stores, restaurants, etc.
So do yourself a favor this Fall/Winter: a) make an effort to keep your hands away from your face; and b) do plenty of hand washing – particularly in public areas where viruses are likely to be spread via commonly handled surfaces. This isn’t paranoia – it’s plain common sense.
