Importance of adequate Restroom Hygiene

The importance of restroom hygiene, whether at home or in public places, can not be stressed enough. In particular in public restrooms, users need to ensure they follow an adequate set of measures to ensure their own as well as other people’s health.

Restrooms, even if well cleaned on a regular basis, are a haven for all sorts of germs. These germs may include bacteria or viruses causing gastro-intestinal, a well as urinary infections, colds, flu and a host of other infectious diseases. Visitors must therefore ensure that they do all they possibly can to stop spreading or being attacked by germs.

While it may seem unnecessary, every user of a public restroom should ensure that they wash their hands before making use of the facilities. Doing this will prevent moving germs picked up from door handles, for example, onto other parts of one’s body.

When finished using the facilities, emptying catheter bags or changing external male catheters or other means of incontinence management, it is an absolutely vital necessity to wash one’s hands thoroughly.

Faucets should preferably be both opened and closed with the help of a clean sheet of paper toweling. After removing rings and other jewelery and placing them onto a fresh paper towel, hands should be washed well, using hot water and soap.

A quick dipping the hands under cold water will unfortunately not be enough to remove germs, so each hand will have to be carefully lathered and cleaned thoroughly. This includes rubbing the areas between fingers, scrubbing under the finger nails and including the wrists, a well as forearms, in the procedure.

After each hand has thus been scrubbed for at least 15 seconds, although a longer period may be required if visible dirt is present, the hands need to be rinsed well under hot water. Once the faucets have been closed, again using a new sheet of paper toweling to avoid picking up new germs, the hands should preferably be dried either with an air dryer or a clean disposable towel.

All paper towels should be safely disposed of in the provided bins and on leaving the restroom, the individual should avoid touching the door handles in order to prevent new germs from becoming attached to the hands once more. By following these simple measures, an individual can do much to prevent becoming ill or exposing others to a range of unpleasant infections.