At school, the toilets are often dirty… So are the hands! Dirty hands, especially in children, is a real hygiene problem that worries doctors. We don’t wash them enough!
Every year, on November 19, on the occasion of World Toilet Day, various surveys remind us that we are lucky, in France, to have toilets almost everywhere. An incredible luxury for most of the inhabitants of this planet. With terrible consequences that translate into epidemics of deadly infectious diseases. But the surveys also reveal to us the lamentable state of the toilets of French schoolchildren. Only 10% of them are totally satisfied with hygiene, and nearly one in two parents expresses concern about a total lack of hygiene. To be complete, it would be necessary to add the state of the hands of our little angel heads…
A back-to-school goal
Hands are our main tool, and therefore the most exposed to the microbes that surround us. Washing your hands is simple and effective. However, contrary to what one might think, all the efforts of the teachers of the Third Republic did not make it a natural reflex. Far from it ! Two years ago, one in two children didn’t care. The pandemic and the oft-repeated advice have undoubtedly changed things.
Even if it makes you smile a little, and we often forget to talk about it, the biggest progress in terms of saving life in the 20th century was thanks to the appearance of daily hygiene. And more particularly the hands… Because you do a lot of things with your hands and they are never far from your mouth.
By regular washing with soap, the child morbidity rate linked to diarrheal diseases and pneumonia can be reduced by half. This represents thousands of lives saved… And this does not only concern emerging countries… The winter viruses will be remembered in the dirty hands of our country.
Formerly, the schoolboy knew that the sesame of the class were impeccable palms, raised towards the gaze of the master. This is no longer the case. Ask the little ones today if this is part of their everyday life, they will shrug their shoulders with a laugh. However, the French are unanimous, they want 96% to have clean hands, especially women. Especially the old ones, because between the ages of 15 and 19, only one out of two finds the matter important.
The perfect quick method
You have to wash your hands, with liquid soap or in large blocks, like in Marseille, whatever the means, as long as you do it. Here is the best method: we wet our hands; pour a little liquid soap into the palms of your hands. We rub them for at least 20 seconds by interlacing them to clean between the fingers; we think of nails; rinse under water and dry with a single-use towel that you throw away after wiping the tap with it. This, almost no one does, although it is important.
You have to roll up your sleeves and wash your hands every time you perform so-called “risky” actions, such as blowing your nose, scratching your head, after using a public telephone, on returning from school, the office, before handling food and of course, when leaving the toilet…