Air Date: July 28, 2004
PART 1
E. coli: Preventing a common type
of food poisoning
You love your hamburgers juicy and medium rare.
But can eating an undercooked hamburger be
dangerous to your health? It can be if your ground
beef is contaminated with certain bacteria.
Foodborne infections — illnesses spread through food
or beverages — occur when bacteria enter your
gastrointestinal tract, causing nausea, vomiting,
abdominal cramps and diarrhea.
This distressing and sometimes life-threatening
problem affects millions of Americans. In fact, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
estimates that 76 million people suffer from food
poisoning each year, resulting in 325,000
hospitalizations and more than 5,000 deaths.
One common group of bacteria that causes
foodborne illness is Escherichia coli (E. coli). In 1982
E. coli became a household term when dozens of
people became sick from eating contaminated
hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant. Since then, most
infections from E. coli have been traced back to
eating undercooked ground beef.
Food poisoning from E. coli infections often can be
prevented. Knowing how E. coli is spread, what foods
may carry the bacteria, and how to handle your food
safely can help you avoid getting sick.
What is E. coli?
E. coli is a group of bacteria normally found in the
intestines of humans and animals. Of the hundreds of
types of E. coli, most are harmless. However, one
particularly active strain — O157:H7 — produces
harmful toxins and can cause severe illness. The CDC
estimates that this strain of E. coli infects 73,000
people and causes 61 deaths each year.
Many people get sick from E. coli by eating food and
drinking beverages that contain the harmful bacteria.
Once the bacteria enter your body, they attach to the
cells lining your intestinal walls and begin to multiply.
As the bacteria grow in numbers, they release
powerful toxins that can severely damage the lining
of your intestine, causing cramping and diarrhea.
In most cases E. coli food poisoning comes from
undercooked, contaminated ground beef. Other
products that may carry the bacteria include:
Unpasteurized milk, apple juice and apple cider
Alfalfa sprouts
Lettuce
Dry cured sausage
Undercooked roast beef
How is E. coli spread?
E. coli lives naturally in the intestines of many
animals, particularly cattle. Contamination can occur
through inadvertent contact with fecal matter during
the slaughter and processing of animal foods or
through improper food handling. Ground meat is of
special concern because during the grinding process,
the bacteria — if present — can be transferred from
the surface to the interior of the meat.
In addition, E. coli bacteria are easily spread from
one surface to another (cross contamination). For
example, bacteria present on the cow's udder or on
equipment may get into raw milk. Certain types of
produce such as lettuce and alfalfa sprouts can also
be infected through cross contamination.
What's more, E. coli is present in the diarrheal stools
of people who are infected. And if you don't practice
proper hygiene or handwashing habits, the bacteria
can easily be passed from one person to another. This
is especially the case for family members and
caregivers of toddlers who aren't toilet trained. In fact,
bacteria can be present in the stools of young
children 1 to 2 weeks after their symptoms have gone
away.
E. coli in the water
E. coli infections have also been associated with
drinking water. During rainfalls, snow-melts or other
types of precipitation, E. coli may be washed into
creeks, rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater. When
you drink this water and the water isn’t treated, you
may become infected with the bacteria.
In addition, you can be infected by swimming in
unchlorinated or undercholorinated water
contaminated by human feces or by swimming in
sewage-contaminated water.
To prevent E. coli contamination, water is treated
with chlorine, ultra-violet light or ozone. Systems
using surface water, rather than ground water, are
required to take extra steps to ensure the water is
disinfected. This is because surface water is more
vulnerable to bacterial contamination. Water systems
that use ground water sources aren't required to meet
these same standards.
What are the symptoms?
Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, several
types can produce harmful toxins that cause diarrhea.
Within 1 to 14 days of exposure, people who are
infected can experience watery, nonbloody diarrhea
with cramping. As many as 95 percent of these cases
will progress to bloody diarrhea (hemorrhagic colitis).
For many people, the illness resolves without
antibiotics or other specific treatment in 5 to 10 days.
See your doctor if your diarrhea lasts more than a few
weeks or if you develop severe diarrhea along with the
following signs and symptoms:
Low urine output
Bloody stools
Fever
Abdominal pain
Cramps
These warning signs may signal a more serious
disease that is potentially life threatening. For about 2
percent to 7 percent of cases, the bacteria can
destroy red blood cells and can cause kidney failure
(hemolytic uremic syndrome).
Children under the age of 5, elderly people and
people with weakened immune systems are at
greatest risk of developing severe illnesses caused by
E. coli.
What you can do
Despite regulation aimed at controlling the spread of
E. coli, the bacteria can still get into your food on
occasion. Therefore it's best to cook your meat
thoroughly since contaminated meat looks and smells
normal.
In the past it was recommended that you cook beef
until it's no longer pink and the juices run clear. But
color isn't a good indicator of how well meat is
cooked. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
suggests that the only way to ensure meat is cooked
properly is to use a meat thermometer to be sure that
the internal temperature is at least 160 F.
The USDA also recommends that you store ground
beef at a temperature of 40 F or less and use it within
2 days, or else freeze the meat for long-term storage.
Bacteria can multiply quickly in temperatures
between 40 F and 140 F.
You can take other steps to avoid food poisoning:
Shopping
Choose packages that feel cold and aren't torn.
Enclose raw meat packages in plastic bags so
leaking juices won't drip onto other food.
Separate your meat and poultry products from the
rest of your groceries.
Make ground beef one of the last items to go into
your shopping cart.
Use a cooler for your meat and poultry if you have
to travel longer than an hour.
Storing
Refrigerate or freeze ground beef as soon as you
get home.
Keep meat at 40 F or below and use within 1 or 2
days if refrigerated.
Wrap meat in heavy-duty plastic wrap, freezer
paper or aluminum foil for long-term storage in your
freezer.
Mark your packages with the date they were placed
in the freezer. Use within 4 months.
Never leave ground beef or any perishable food out
at room temperature longer than 2 hours.
Cooking
Thaw meat in the refrigerator, not on the counter.
Wash your meat thermometer between tests of
ground beef that require further cooking.
Don't put cooked hamburger on the same platter
that held raw patties.
Wash fruits and vegetables in running tap water,
especially those that won't be cooked.
Cleaning up
Wash your hands with soap and hot water before
and after handling uncooked meat.
Don't reuse packaging materials.
Wash countertops, cutting boards and utensils after
they've come in contact with raw meat.
PART 2
Cutting boards: Wood vs. Plastic
Q: Which is safer — a wooden cutting board or a
plastic or glass one?
Anne/Michigan
A:
People have debated this question for many years.
The most important factor in selecting a cutting
board is its ability to be cleaned and sanitized.
The ideal cutting board should be:
Smooth, nonporous and resistant to scratching or
scoring. Microorganisms can live in scratches or cuts
on a board — even in a dormant phase — for long
periods. The next time the board is used, they can
contaminate other food. A smooth, hard surface
makes a cutting board easier to clean and more
difficult for germs to penetrate.
Durable. Ideally, you should wash the board with
hot, soapy water. Then sanitize it by placing it into an
automatic dishwasher. If the board isn't up to this
sanitizing challenge, rinse it after every use with a
bleach and water solution (1 to 2 teaspoons of bleach
for each quart of water). Air-dry your cutting board to
avoid recontaminating it with a dirty towel.
Whether wood or plastic is safer hasn't been
determined. There's no evidence that cutting boards
containing triclosan, an antimicrobial agent, prevent
the spread of food-borne infections. These boards
also may give a false sense of security and cause you
to relax other efforts to keep the board clean. In
addition, triclosan-treated boards don't kill germs.
Antimicrobial compounds only slow reproduction of
microorganisms. Germs will die, but slowly enough to
still contaminate other food or hands that come into
contact with the board.
The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
recommends that you use one board for cutting up
foods that you plan to cook (raw meats, poultry, fish,
vegetables) and one for ready-to-eat foods (breads,
fresh fruits).
It's important to note that a Food and Drug
Administration survey of food-handling practices
revealed that most people know that it's important to
clean cutting board. But more than 20 percent still
don't wash their cutting boards after cutting raw meat.
PART 3
Clean your hands: A simple way to prevent
infection
It's a simple habit — one that requires minimal
training and no special equipment. Yet it's one of the
best ways to avoid becoming ill with an infectious
disease, such as a cold, the flu or infectious diarrhea.
This simple habit is cleaning your hands (practicing
hand hygiene), and it calls only for soap and warm
water or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers
(cleansers that don't require water). Do you know the
benefits of good hand hygiene and when and how to
clean your hands properly?
The dangers of poor hand hygiene
Despite the proven health benefits of good hand
hygiene, many people just don't practice this habit as
often as they should. You can probably confirm this
by simply observing how many people leave public
restrooms without washing their hands.
The American Society of Microbiology finds that up
to one-third of people passing through major airports
in the United States don't wash their hands after using
the toilet. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) also estimates that about one in
three people don't wash their hands after using the
restroom.
But the problem goes beyond the restroom.
Throughout the day, you accumulate germs on your
hands from a variety of sources — direct contact with
people, contaminated surfaces, foods, even animals
and animal waste. If you don't clean your hands
frequently enough, you can infect yourself with these
germs by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. And you
can spread these germs to others by touching them or
by touching surfaces that they also touch, such as
doorknobs.
Infectious diseases commonly spread through hand-to-
hand contact include the common cold, influenza
and several gastrointestinal disorders, such as
infectious diarrhea. While most people will get over a
cold, influenza is much more serious. Some people
with influenza, particularly older adults and people
with chronic medical problems, can develop
pneumonia. The combination of influenza and
pneumonia, in fact, is the seventh leading cause of
death among Americans.
Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-
related illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli
infection. According to the CDC, as many as 76
million Americans contract a food-borne illness each
year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of their
illness. Others experience the annoying symptoms of
nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Proper hand-cleaning techniques
Good hand hygiene techniques include washing your
hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based
hand sanitizer.
Proper hand washing
The CDC and the American Society for Microbiology
offer these instructions for proper hand washing:
Wet your hands with warm, running water and apply
liquid or clean bar soap. Lather well.
Rub your hands vigorously together for at least 10
to 15 seconds.
Scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your
hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your
fingernails.
Rinse well.
Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel.
If you're in a public restroom, leave the water running
when you're finished rinsing. After your hands are dry,
use a paper towel to turn off the faucet.
Antibacterial soaps have become increasingly
popular in recent years. These soaps may offer
greater protection than regular soaps if you have an
open cut or sore on your hand that could become
infected or if your immune system is impaired. But, in
general, regular soap is fine. The combination of
scrubbing your hands with soap — antibacterial or not
— and rinsing them with water loosens and removes
bacteria from your hands.
Proper use of an alcohol-based hand
sanitizer
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers — which don't require
use of water — are an excellent alternative to hand
washing, particularly when soap and water aren't
available. They're actually more effective than hand
washing in killing bacteria and viruses that cause
disease. Commercially prepared hand sanitizers
contain ingredients that help prevent skin dryness. In
fact, use of these products can result in less skin
dryness and irritation than hand washing.
Not all hand sanitizers are created equal, however.
Some "waterless" hand sanitizers don't contain
alcohol. Use only the alcohol-based products.
To use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:
Apply it to the palm of your hand. Read the label
for dosing instructions.
Rub your hands together, covering all surfaces of
your hands, until they're dry.
If your hands are visibly dirty, however, wash with soap
and water rather than a sanitizer.
When should you clean your hands?
Although it's impossible to keep your bare hands germ-
free, times exist when it's critical to clean your hands
to limit the transfer of bacteria, viruses and other
microbes.
Always clean your hands:
Before eating
After using the bathroom
After changing a diaper — wash the diaper-wearer's
hands, too
Before and after preparing food, especially before
and immediately after handling raw meat, poultry or
fish
After touching animals or animal waste
After blowing your nose
After coughing or sneezing into your hands
Before and after treating wounds or cuts
Before and after touching a sick or injured person
After handling garbage
Before inserting or removing contact lenses
Kids need clean hands, too
Proper and frequent hand washing by children can
prevent many childhood infections. To get kids into
the habit, teach by example. Wash your hands with
your children and supervise their hand washing.
Place hand washing reminders at children's eye level,
such as a chart by the bathroom sink for children to
mark every time they wash their hands.
Older children and adolescents also can use alcohol-
based hand sanitizers. Younger children can use
them, too — with an adult's help. Just make sure the
sanitizer has completely dried before the child
touches anything. This will avoid ingestion of alcohol
from hand-to-mouth contact. Store the container
safely away after use.
Good hand hygiene is especially important for
children who attend daycare. Children in daycare are
at greater risk for gastrointestinal diseases, which can
easily be spread to family members and others in the
community.
To protect your child's health, be sure your daycare
provider promotes sound hygiene, including frequent
hand washing or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
Ask whether the children are required to clean their
hands several times a day — not just before meals.
And make sure the sink is low enough for children to
use, or that it has a stool underneath so that children
can reach it. Note, too, whether diapering areas are
cleaned after each use and whether eating and
diapering areas are well separated.
A simple way to stay healthy
Good hand hygiene doesn't take much time or effort.
But it offers great rewards in terms of preventing
illness. Resolve today to adopt this simple habit as a
way to help protect your health.
PART 1
E. coli: Preventing a common type
of food poisoning
You love your hamburgers juicy and medium rare.
But can eating an undercooked hamburger be
dangerous to your health? It can be if your ground
beef is contaminated with certain bacteria.
Foodborne infections — illnesses spread through food
or beverages — occur when bacteria enter your
gastrointestinal tract, causing nausea, vomiting,
abdominal cramps and diarrhea.
This distressing and sometimes life-threatening
problem affects millions of Americans. In fact, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
estimates that 76 million people suffer from food
poisoning each year, resulting in 325,000
hospitalizations and more than 5,000 deaths.
One common group of bacteria that causes
foodborne illness is Escherichia coli (E. coli). In 1982
E. coli became a household term when dozens of
people became sick from eating contaminated
hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant. Since then, most
infections from E. coli have been traced back to
eating undercooked ground beef.
Food poisoning from E. coli infections often can be
prevented. Knowing how E. coli is spread, what foods
may carry the bacteria, and how to handle your food
safely can help you avoid getting sick.
What is E. coli?
E. coli is a group of bacteria normally found in the
intestines of humans and animals. Of the hundreds of
types of E. coli, most are harmless. However, one
particularly active strain — O157:H7 — produces
harmful toxins and can cause severe illness. The CDC
estimates that this strain of E. coli infects 73,000
people and causes 61 deaths each year.
Many people get sick from E. coli by eating food and
drinking beverages that contain the harmful bacteria.
Once the bacteria enter your body, they attach to the
cells lining your intestinal walls and begin to multiply.
As the bacteria grow in numbers, they release
powerful toxins that can severely damage the lining
of your intestine, causing cramping and diarrhea.
In most cases E. coli food poisoning comes from
undercooked, contaminated ground beef. Other
products that may carry the bacteria include:
Unpasteurized milk, apple juice and apple cider
Alfalfa sprouts
Lettuce
Dry cured sausage
Undercooked roast beef
How is E. coli spread?
E. coli lives naturally in the intestines of many
animals, particularly cattle. Contamination can occur
through inadvertent contact with fecal matter during
the slaughter and processing of animal foods or
through improper food handling. Ground meat is of
special concern because during the grinding process,
the bacteria — if present — can be transferred from
the surface to the interior of the meat.
In addition, E. coli bacteria are easily spread from
one surface to another (cross contamination). For
example, bacteria present on the cow's udder or on
equipment may get into raw milk. Certain types of
produce such as lettuce and alfalfa sprouts can also
be infected through cross contamination.
What's more, E. coli is present in the diarrheal stools
of people who are infected. And if you don't practice
proper hygiene or handwashing habits, the bacteria
can easily be passed from one person to another. This
is especially the case for family members and
caregivers of toddlers who aren't toilet trained. In fact,
bacteria can be present in the stools of young
children 1 to 2 weeks after their symptoms have gone
away.
E. coli in the water
E. coli infections have also been associated with
drinking water. During rainfalls, snow-melts or other
types of precipitation, E. coli may be washed into
creeks, rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater. When
you drink this water and the water isn’t treated, you
may become infected with the bacteria.
In addition, you can be infected by swimming in
unchlorinated or undercholorinated water
contaminated by human feces or by swimming in
sewage-contaminated water.
To prevent E. coli contamination, water is treated
with chlorine, ultra-violet light or ozone. Systems
using surface water, rather than ground water, are
required to take extra steps to ensure the water is
disinfected. This is because surface water is more
vulnerable to bacterial contamination. Water systems
that use ground water sources aren't required to meet
these same standards.
What are the symptoms?
Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, several
types can produce harmful toxins that cause diarrhea.
Within 1 to 14 days of exposure, people who are
infected can experience watery, nonbloody diarrhea
with cramping. As many as 95 percent of these cases
will progress to bloody diarrhea (hemorrhagic colitis).
For many people, the illness resolves without
antibiotics or other specific treatment in 5 to 10 days.
See your doctor if your diarrhea lasts more than a few
weeks or if you develop severe diarrhea along with the
following signs and symptoms:
Low urine output
Bloody stools
Fever
Abdominal pain
Cramps
These warning signs may signal a more serious
disease that is potentially life threatening. For about 2
percent to 7 percent of cases, the bacteria can
destroy red blood cells and can cause kidney failure
(hemolytic uremic syndrome).
Children under the age of 5, elderly people and
people with weakened immune systems are at
greatest risk of developing severe illnesses caused by
E. coli.
What you can do
Despite regulation aimed at controlling the spread of
E. coli, the bacteria can still get into your food on
occasion. Therefore it's best to cook your meat
thoroughly since contaminated meat looks and smells
normal.
In the past it was recommended that you cook beef
until it's no longer pink and the juices run clear. But
color isn't a good indicator of how well meat is
cooked. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
suggests that the only way to ensure meat is cooked
properly is to use a meat thermometer to be sure that
the internal temperature is at least 160 F.
The USDA also recommends that you store ground
beef at a temperature of 40 F or less and use it within
2 days, or else freeze the meat for long-term storage.
Bacteria can multiply quickly in temperatures
between 40 F and 140 F.
You can take other steps to avoid food poisoning:
Shopping
Choose packages that feel cold and aren't torn.
Enclose raw meat packages in plastic bags so
leaking juices won't drip onto other food.
Separate your meat and poultry products from the
rest of your groceries.
Make ground beef one of the last items to go into
your shopping cart.
Use a cooler for your meat and poultry if you have
to travel longer than an hour.
Storing
Refrigerate or freeze ground beef as soon as you
get home.
Keep meat at 40 F or below and use within 1 or 2
days if refrigerated.
Wrap meat in heavy-duty plastic wrap, freezer
paper or aluminum foil for long-term storage in your
freezer.
Mark your packages with the date they were placed
in the freezer. Use within 4 months.
Never leave ground beef or any perishable food out
at room temperature longer than 2 hours.
Cooking
Thaw meat in the refrigerator, not on the counter.
Wash your meat thermometer between tests of
ground beef that require further cooking.
Don't put cooked hamburger on the same platter
that held raw patties.
Wash fruits and vegetables in running tap water,
especially those that won't be cooked.
Cleaning up
Wash your hands with soap and hot water before
and after handling uncooked meat.
Don't reuse packaging materials.
Wash countertops, cutting boards and utensils after
they've come in contact with raw meat.
PART 2
Cutting boards: Wood vs. Plastic
Q: Which is safer — a wooden cutting board or a
plastic or glass one?
Anne/Michigan
A:
People have debated this question for many years.
The most important factor in selecting a cutting
board is its ability to be cleaned and sanitized.
The ideal cutting board should be:
Smooth, nonporous and resistant to scratching or
scoring. Microorganisms can live in scratches or cuts
on a board — even in a dormant phase — for long
periods. The next time the board is used, they can
contaminate other food. A smooth, hard surface
makes a cutting board easier to clean and more
difficult for germs to penetrate.
Durable. Ideally, you should wash the board with
hot, soapy water. Then sanitize it by placing it into an
automatic dishwasher. If the board isn't up to this
sanitizing challenge, rinse it after every use with a
bleach and water solution (1 to 2 teaspoons of bleach
for each quart of water). Air-dry your cutting board to
avoid recontaminating it with a dirty towel.
Whether wood or plastic is safer hasn't been
determined. There's no evidence that cutting boards
containing triclosan, an antimicrobial agent, prevent
the spread of food-borne infections. These boards
also may give a false sense of security and cause you
to relax other efforts to keep the board clean. In
addition, triclosan-treated boards don't kill germs.
Antimicrobial compounds only slow reproduction of
microorganisms. Germs will die, but slowly enough to
still contaminate other food or hands that come into
contact with the board.
The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
recommends that you use one board for cutting up
foods that you plan to cook (raw meats, poultry, fish,
vegetables) and one for ready-to-eat foods (breads,
fresh fruits).
It's important to note that a Food and Drug
Administration survey of food-handling practices
revealed that most people know that it's important to
clean cutting board. But more than 20 percent still
don't wash their cutting boards after cutting raw meat.
PART 3
Clean your hands: A simple way to prevent
infection
It's a simple habit — one that requires minimal
training and no special equipment. Yet it's one of the
best ways to avoid becoming ill with an infectious
disease, such as a cold, the flu or infectious diarrhea.
This simple habit is cleaning your hands (practicing
hand hygiene), and it calls only for soap and warm
water or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers
(cleansers that don't require water). Do you know the
benefits of good hand hygiene and when and how to
clean your hands properly?
The dangers of poor hand hygiene
Despite the proven health benefits of good hand
hygiene, many people just don't practice this habit as
often as they should. You can probably confirm this
by simply observing how many people leave public
restrooms without washing their hands.
The American Society of Microbiology finds that up
to one-third of people passing through major airports
in the United States don't wash their hands after using
the toilet. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) also estimates that about one in
three people don't wash their hands after using the
restroom.
But the problem goes beyond the restroom.
Throughout the day, you accumulate germs on your
hands from a variety of sources — direct contact with
people, contaminated surfaces, foods, even animals
and animal waste. If you don't clean your hands
frequently enough, you can infect yourself with these
germs by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. And you
can spread these germs to others by touching them or
by touching surfaces that they also touch, such as
doorknobs.
Infectious diseases commonly spread through hand-to-
hand contact include the common cold, influenza
and several gastrointestinal disorders, such as
infectious diarrhea. While most people will get over a
cold, influenza is much more serious. Some people
with influenza, particularly older adults and people
with chronic medical problems, can develop
pneumonia. The combination of influenza and
pneumonia, in fact, is the seventh leading cause of
death among Americans.
Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-
related illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli
infection. According to the CDC, as many as 76
million Americans contract a food-borne illness each
year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of their
illness. Others experience the annoying symptoms of
nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Proper hand-cleaning techniques
Good hand hygiene techniques include washing your
hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based
hand sanitizer.
Proper hand washing
The CDC and the American Society for Microbiology
offer these instructions for proper hand washing:
Wet your hands with warm, running water and apply
liquid or clean bar soap. Lather well.
Rub your hands vigorously together for at least 10
to 15 seconds.
Scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your
hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your
fingernails.
Rinse well.
Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel.
If you're in a public restroom, leave the water running
when you're finished rinsing. After your hands are dry,
use a paper towel to turn off the faucet.
Antibacterial soaps have become increasingly
popular in recent years. These soaps may offer
greater protection than regular soaps if you have an
open cut or sore on your hand that could become
infected or if your immune system is impaired. But, in
general, regular soap is fine. The combination of
scrubbing your hands with soap — antibacterial or not
— and rinsing them with water loosens and removes
bacteria from your hands.
Proper use of an alcohol-based hand
sanitizer
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers — which don't require
use of water — are an excellent alternative to hand
washing, particularly when soap and water aren't
available. They're actually more effective than hand
washing in killing bacteria and viruses that cause
disease. Commercially prepared hand sanitizers
contain ingredients that help prevent skin dryness. In
fact, use of these products can result in less skin
dryness and irritation than hand washing.
Not all hand sanitizers are created equal, however.
Some "waterless" hand sanitizers don't contain
alcohol. Use only the alcohol-based products.
To use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:
Apply it to the palm of your hand. Read the label
for dosing instructions.
Rub your hands together, covering all surfaces of
your hands, until they're dry.
If your hands are visibly dirty, however, wash with soap
and water rather than a sanitizer.
When should you clean your hands?
Although it's impossible to keep your bare hands germ-
free, times exist when it's critical to clean your hands
to limit the transfer of bacteria, viruses and other
microbes.
Always clean your hands:
Before eating
After using the bathroom
After changing a diaper — wash the diaper-wearer's
hands, too
Before and after preparing food, especially before
and immediately after handling raw meat, poultry or
fish
After touching animals or animal waste
After blowing your nose
After coughing or sneezing into your hands
Before and after treating wounds or cuts
Before and after touching a sick or injured person
After handling garbage
Before inserting or removing contact lenses
Kids need clean hands, too
Proper and frequent hand washing by children can
prevent many childhood infections. To get kids into
the habit, teach by example. Wash your hands with
your children and supervise their hand washing.
Place hand washing reminders at children's eye level,
such as a chart by the bathroom sink for children to
mark every time they wash their hands.
Older children and adolescents also can use alcohol-
based hand sanitizers. Younger children can use
them, too — with an adult's help. Just make sure the
sanitizer has completely dried before the child
touches anything. This will avoid ingestion of alcohol
from hand-to-mouth contact. Store the container
safely away after use.
Good hand hygiene is especially important for
children who attend daycare. Children in daycare are
at greater risk for gastrointestinal diseases, which can
easily be spread to family members and others in the
community.
To protect your child's health, be sure your daycare
provider promotes sound hygiene, including frequent
hand washing or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
Ask whether the children are required to clean their
hands several times a day — not just before meals.
And make sure the sink is low enough for children to
use, or that it has a stool underneath so that children
can reach it. Note, too, whether diapering areas are
cleaned after each use and whether eating and
diapering areas are well separated.
A simple way to stay healthy
Good hand hygiene doesn't take much time or effort.
But it offers great rewards in terms of preventing
illness. Resolve today to adopt this simple habit as a
way to help protect your health.
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