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SALT LAKE CITY — Chances are, your hands are dirtier than you think. According to a new study, only 1 in 20 people properly wash their hands.
Researchers in a Michigan college town discreetly observed the hand washing habits of 3,749 people after using a public toilet. They found that only 5 percent of people washed their hands with soap long enough to kill germs and 33 percent didn't use soap. Another 10 percent skipped the sink altogether. Their findings were published in the Journal of Environmental Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone wash their hands after using the toilet, among other tasks, by wetting their hands, applying soap, scrubbing the entirety of both hands — from fingertips to palms — for 20 seconds before rinsing and drying them off.
When soap is unavailable, the CDC advises people use a hand sanitizer containing at least 60 percent alcohol.
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But 95 percent of people only wash their hands for an average of 6 seconds.
"These findings were surprising to us because past research suggested that proper hand washing is occurring at a much higher rate," said Carl Borchgrevink, lead study author, in a statement.
The researchers also found that women were more more likely to wash their hands: 78 percent of women washed their hands, compared to 50 percent of men. Of those men who washed their hands, only 50 percent used soap.
There were some factors that affected the data, such as time of day, a sign encouraging hand washing and the cleanliness of a sink.
People were more likely to wash their hands in the morning than in the evening, if a sign was present and if the sink was clean.
