Random Thought
 

I started off working in the food industry. You are always told to use hot water when washing your hands. Now this has never made sense to me.
At the temperature needed to kill off bacteria wouldn't I burn my hands?
Also what's the soap for then?
We don't brush are teeth with hot or warm water.

Please someone tell me if I am missing something here. I would really like to understand this.

Re: Random Thought
 

I do. :ha:
Don't know about the other regulations though.

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Warm water. It is more comfortable than using cold. As long as you wash properly temperature does not matter.

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The bacteria that can infect a human does best at or around body temp. washing you hands in 105-110F water will kill most of the bacteria. Your body kills bacteria off with fevers around 102F.

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When you brush your teeth, you're not killing bacteria, you're just cleaning/polishing them. Mouthwash will help kill bacteria & bad breath. The soaps out now - a lot have anti-bacterial ingredients, but all soaps will help kill some germs.

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The water temperatures used to wash your hands are definitely not hot enough to kill any bacteria. However, hot water is better at removing the natural oils excreted from your skin which can contain many of the bacteria. The soap (preferrably antibacterial) is the most effective agent at killing bacteria, though scrubbing well alone with just hot water and no soap is very effective at removing a large number of bacteria from your skin. However, if you rub more than a minute or so (with or without soap), you actually get deep enough into your tissue to INCREASE the number of bacteria on your skin! Seems contradictory, but these are the natural flora bacteria that are always found on your body that help prevent the bad types from causing infections.

Optimal hand-washing utilizes tolerably hot water, antibacterial soap and scrubbing well (on all surfaces, between fingers, backs of hands, wrists, and scraping your fingernails against the palm of your hands to get soap up under there too) for 20-30 seconds. Then use a towel to dry your hands (disposable paper towels are best for preventing bacterial spread even though they're wasteful). Dispose of this paper towel then get another dry paper towel to use to turn off the sink and/or open the door (so you don't re-contaminate yourself with bacteria from when you or others touched these surfaces).

Brushing your teeth is not hugely bacteriocidal...it's more for polishing off stains, removing plaque/tartar where bacteria can hide and removing sugars that eat away at enamel. If you want to kill bacteria, you need to use scope or another mouthwash with high amounts of alcohol or other bacteriocidal agents for at least 30 seconds.

Yay for healthcare knowledge! WOO!

Re: Random Thought
 

Also the hot water is beneficial in allowing the soap (not liquid) to become a solution. In nursing school we were taught to sing Happy Birthday once to ourself as the correct time period for hand washing. A surgical scrub, on the other hand (pun intended) lasts 3-5 minutes with antiseptics and soap, plus a scrub 'brush' (now we use sponges) and sticks to clean the nails. It covers the area from the finger tips to the elbow.

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Yup yup...surgical hand washing is MUCH more in depth (for good reason). I was never a legit nurse...I'm only a lowly CNA :ha: Definitely a lot of hand washing though! And surprisingly enough, they never taught people any details of hand washing here in Dr. school....they just say 'wash your hands before this procedure.' Glad I know the proper way from nursing classes!