Commercial Cleaning Blog » Blog Archive Top 3 Reasons People Don’t Wash their Hands after a Trip to the Bathroom

The good news is 70% of Americans say they always wash their hands after using a public restroom according to Bradley’s 2012 Healthy Hand Washing Survey.

The bad news is that 29% said they sometimes skip washing up and 74% of the survey respondents said they frequently or occasionally see people leaving public restrooms without washing their hands. Busted.

Another unpleasant trend is people who just rinse their hands with water instead of washing them properly. In fact, 62% of the people surveyed in 2012 admitted they have skipped the soap and just rinsed with water after using a public restroom, compared to 54% in 2011.

The scariest fact the survey uncovered? One percent of the people surveyed admitted that they never wash their hands after using a restroom.

The top three reasons the respondents gave for not washing their hands thoroughly:

1. Used hand sanitizer instead
2. No soap in restroom
3. No paper towels in the restroom

While using hand sanitizer might seem like a decent idea, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that it’s not an ideal replacement; washing with soap and water is the best way to reduce the number of germs, and hand sanitizers are not effective when hands are visibly dirty.

An interesting side note: people wash their hands more frequently after using the restroom in the workplace compared to public restrooms. Just 42% of Americans report they frequently or occasionally see people leave the restroom at work without washing their hands versus 74% in a public bathroom.

Want to help encourage your work mates wash their hands in the restroom? Download a free hand washing guide here. Then find out more about why hand hygiene is important to office cleaning.

Keep your office clean with a professional office cleaning program that focuses on the health and wellness of your facility, such as the Coverall^® Program.

This content was originally published here.