Soap Off Poo or Eat It Later
24 Oct 2009
Have you heard of the “Golden Poo Award”? It’s not as prestigious as the Nobel Prize. But now that the virus season is here, it’s time to think about influenza and the H1N1 virus. But remember there’s more to infection than these two diseases. That’s why the Golden Poo Award was recently presented to contestants who made outstanding contributions to hygiene and sanitation. But can you guess what winners of this peculiar contest won?
The Golden Poo Award sponsored by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), had one main message. People often don’t wash their hands after using the toilet. The goal of the contest was to find motivation for them to do so.
LSHTM had good reason to reach their unappetizing conclusion. It reported a recent survey during which public washroom sinks were outfitted with sensors. It then monitored a quarter of a million people who used the facilities. This revealed that only 28 percent of men washed their hands after zipping up their trousers. Women had only a slightly better track record.
So what did the winning contestant propose in an effort to improve hygiene? In the women’s washroom a LED screen was inscribed with the question, “Is the person next to you washing with soap?” In the men’s washroom the message went right to the jugular, “Soap it off or eat it later”. This motivated more men to scrub at the sink. Clever cartoon films also got the hand washing message across to young children.
Dr. Val Curtis Director of Hygiene at the LSHTM, said, ” We need to talk more about poo. It shouldn’t be a taboo subject. Poor hygiene kills 5,000 children every day.”
And we know that these children often don’t even have a bucket for their poo.
The importance of hand washing was proved to be life-saving 150 years ago by Semmelweiss, a doctor in Vienna. Semmelweiss observed that one in six women died of infection following childbirth. He decided it was because doctors, following autopsy, would deliver babies without washing their hands. Once hand washing was adopted, the maternal death rate plummeted.
So how bad is hygiene in North America? Experts say that only 40 percent of hospital workers wash their hands. That’s why each year an estimated 200,000 Canadians develop hospital infections and 8,000 die!
So what we need is a Golden Poo Award in this country. Particularly when even those who should know better, do not know better.
A few years ago the New Orleans Health Department stationed medical student spies in washrooms during a meeting of infectious disease specialists. The shocking conclusion was that of 500 doctors using these facilities, only 69 percent washed their hands.
It’s amazing how careless some people are about hand hygiene. How many times have you seen a person blow his or her nose, then offer to shake your hand? Or a friend who puts ice in your drink after running his hand down fidos’s tail. For all I know Fido may have just pooped, and I know what I’ll be drinking.
Poo experts stress that hand washing is the most important habit to prevent the spread of disease-causing germs. Often we hear people say, “I have a cold so I won’t kiss you”. But then they proceed to shake your hand! The best solution, of course, would be to follow the Japanese, and just bow.
As seasonal influenza and H1N1 viruses now spread across the country, there is debate about the wisdom of taking these vaccines, particularly H1N1. Some question the safety. Or are concerned that the vaccine has not been thoroughly tested. But there should be no debate about hand washing.
In order to guard against poo, and to further decrease the risk, I’ll be washing my hands with Trisan, an anti-microbial cleanser. This agent is effective against several microorganisms while also cleansing and moisturizing the skin.
So how much money did contest winners receive? The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine poo-poohed the idea that money motivated contestants. Instead it created a golden statue. But it was a statute of Poo.
