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Comment by jesuschroist | Hacker News Reader

And provide soap at sinks in public bathrooms.

And what about those hand dryers? Do they just blow droplets containing the virus around the place?

Air driers have shown to be terrible for hygiene. But they're convenient and save paper.

Convenient for me? No, I either stand there forever or leave with semi-wet hands. Paper towels work much faster and more effective, but the decision is made by facilities.

Your hands dry much quicker under a hand dryer if you rub them together. I see so many people who just leave their hands flaccid and it takes a lot longer

Air dryers also leave you with nothing to open the door with.

That drives me nuts... Need to always carry some paper towels on hand for times like that.

I keep wondering why bathroom doors aren't designed to swing outwards by default. Then you could open them without touching a handle.

I always assumed it was firecode

(i.e. a fire in the bathroom creates a vacuum which prevents the door from opening outward. maybe that’s idiotic)

I only know what the Internet says so this may or may not be correct.

1. Inward opening is probably less inclined to disperse bathroom air into the hallway outside.

2. You're probably less likely to smack someone with a door opening into a hallway. (Or course, someone entering might do it to someone exiting a bathroom but most people are probably at least somewhat trained to exercise caution under those circumstances.)

3. If anything, I'd think fire code would favor door opening out given that's the general rule.

I think doors on the emergency exit route always open outwards so that they can open in a stampede. You'd usually have push bars on them instead of a regular handle too.

Eh, all the studies I've seen that show some dramatic difference have been funded by paper towel producers and used poor methodology. I believe research by the Mayo Clinic has shown that air dryers and paper towels are roughly equivalent for hygienic purposes.

The Japanese solution is everyone carrying their own personal small towel.

Is using the tap and soap of a public bathroom really reducing the chances of virus/bacteria infection? Or is it increasing them because the soap and tap carry viruses and bacteria themselfes?

Not sure if you've been to Japan but they have some of the cleanest public facilities I've seen in spite of all the traffic. I'm sure people are coming through multiple times a day to wipe down all fomites.

Maybe. But does that answer my question?

If you touch the soap and the tap, that will surely transfer germs to your hands that the person before you left there?

I believe I did answer your question. Washing your hands will always be better than not. Many modern buildings also have automated water/soap/towel dispensers. And you can always use the towel to open the door.

Yes, but on your way into the stall, you touched the stall door, and then you touched other things, including your clothing, which you didn't wash on the way out, only your hands.

Touching the soap doesn’t matter at all. You’re about to wash it all off your hands.

Soap and water definitely work to reduce infections, even when using a shared sink. Look up what happened in the 19th century when people finally figured this out and started hand washing regularly, infectious disease transmission in settings like hospitals dropped dramatically.

In the 19th century infections were cut drastically when hands were washed with water only. Imagine what soap can do.

They started from not washing hands between autopsies and surgeries though. Talk about low hanging fruit.

Germs probably survive better on your skin than on the cold metal tap in the bathroom. Food safe handwashing says use a paper towel to turn off the tap after you are done drying your hands with it.

Fomite - Wikipedia: A fomes or fomite is any inanimate object that, when contaminated with or exposed to infectious agents can transfer disease to a new host. E.g. tap, couch, bench, hat.

New word to me and I have a pretty good vocab, so

Not unless you go out of your way to avoid touching everything. The act of washing with soap and water removes your personal fecal bacteria and turning off the water replaces it with whatever filth is on the knobs. Ditto if you touch the door knob/handle on the way out.

Use a paper towel on the door knob to avoid infection.

Most public bathrooms have automatic taps now that I see.

Most public bathrooms also have automatic doors (if you wait long enough)

HN, where techies attempt to make logical arguments for why they don't wash after they shit

Why not HN, where techies try to understand processes which may seem counterintuitive once you actually start thinking about them?

Sensor tap + sensor liquid soap dispenser + automatic doors. No touching required.

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