DOWN HOME: For good health, always wash up_100404

Posted: 10/01/04

DOWN HOME:
For good health, always wash up

Talk about a bad job.

The American Society of Microbiology hired people to hang out in airport bathrooms and keep track of the percentage of travelers who wash their hands after they're finished with everything else they do in the bathroom.

I heard about this on the radio. The reporter interviewed one of the “researchers,” who explained he tried to do his job inconspicuously. Like that's easy. He would be the person over by the wall, keeping an eye on the sinks, making tally marks in a notebook, trying not to look thoroughly disgusted.

I know. You think this sounds like a goofy science project. But microbiologists don't do goofy. They're deadly serious.

They say the No. 1 source of infectious diseases is contact between hand and mouth. So, clean hands mean less disease. They keep track of these things. In airports, at baseball stadiums. Maybe at a bathroom near you.

You may be glad to know DFW had the highest hand-washing score for women and second-highest score for men of all U.S. airports. The microbiologist hand-counters reported 92 percent of women and 69 percent of men stopped by the lavatory before exiting restrooms here in Texas.

The only airport that scored better was Toronto, where the SARS outbreak apparently scared everybody who touched that corner of Canada into a hand-washing frenzy.

The worst places to shake hands? Just wave at the women in San Francisco, where only 59 percent washed. Ditto for the guys in Chicago, who washed only 60 percent of the time.

I traveled through several airports during the summer and noticed you almost don't need to use your hands to wash them anymore. The water in most sinks turns on when you wave your hands under the faucet. And more high-tech bathrooms have installed motion-detector paper-towel dispensers or hot-air dryers. Now, if they'd make hands-free soap squirters, you could come clean and only touch the things that actually wash your hands.

Airports already were ahead of the (literal, in some places) curve as far as the undoing of hand-washing goes. You exit most airport bathrooms through little mazes instead of doors, so you don't bring your hands to full antiseptic readiness only to soil them by grabbing a door handle recently polluted by Dingy Don.

Besides sort of grossing me out, the hand-washing survey reminded me of a spiritual truth.

Jesus warned about washing your hands but leaving your heart impure. And while I imagine Jesus would promote proper hygiene, I'm confident he's more concerned about the cleanliness of our souls. So, when you wash your hands, pray the words of Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”