AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! AIR-DRYERS!

We were just sitting here pouring whisky into our tea and pondering the nature of the Universe ("fucked" was the general consensus) when it arrived - wham! bam! thank you, ma'am! Like a gun fight in a Clint Eastwood movie: not entirely unexpected, but featuring plenty of tense moments and squinting. In other words, we received an email from Tudor Friend, with pictures of air dryers!

First of all, let's revisit a video from a previous post:

Sheldon's petulant rant pretty much sums up our view of hand dryers. We've read enough accounts of the ravages of the bubonic plague to have developed a special, fenced-off area in our mind with a large sign planted in the grass saying, "DANGER: PLAGUE. YOU CATCH IT OFF DIRTY PEOPLE WHO SNEEZE INTO THEIR HANDS". We don't like other people, as a rule, and we like other people's diseases even less.

Now, let's hear what Tudor Friend has to say!

If this comes through - and I'm not holding my breath - it is, theoretically, pictures from my recent trip to Cornwall. My mum is obsessed with all things gardening, so we went to Eden Project, the big geodesic domes of rain forest and Mediterranean climate plants. Since its whole raison d'etre is promoting ecological awareness and responsibility, I was not entirely surprised to find that its bathroom held a Wall O' Hand-driers, running from the least environmentally friendly to the most. And what did my brain immediately say? "[The Privy Counsel!]" of course! (If I ever have to do a Rorschach or one of those associative games, you have officially buggered up some psych researcher's results!) So I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to photograph them, hampered by the fact that it was school hols, so there were *tons* of people, spawn in tow, there... And every single brat had to try every. Single. Drier. So the photos are a bit blurred, as I'm trying to shoot them over running-around-rodentia (who are not on leashes but should be). Hopefully they came out all right, and the information panels are legible enough to be read!

In our more militant moments we also believe that society would be immeasurably improved if more children were kept on leashes, but that's not the subject of today's blog post. Enough ranting, and let us see the pictures! we hear you bellow, and quite justifiably. Right-ho:

The different kinds of dryers in the Eden Project toilets

Extolling the virtues of the eco-friendly ones

We've mentioned the Dyson once or twice before

Is it just our dirty minds, or does the Biodrier logo look like the Durex one?

So are the eco-friendly air-dryers really better than paper towels? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Slate tells us that:

The vast majority of a dryer's environmental toll stems from the electricity it requires; a typical warm-air dryer uses around 2,200 watts of power when switched on, plus about 2 watts while in standby mode. If you dry your hands for 30 seconds (as opposed to the 43 seconds required to get them fully water-free), then you're using about 0.018 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Do that three times a day for a year, and your insistence on dry-hand decorum has run you 19.71 kWh of electricity, which translates into roughly 26.61 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

The informative text continues:

These complications, however, pale in comparison with those that bedevil the life-cycle assessment of paper towels. The main problem here is that there's so much variation in how rolls are produced, starting with how the trees are harvested. The vast majority of American paper towels begin life in well-managed commercial timberlands, where trees are replaced after harvest, so deforestation isn't a pressing issue. But one must account for the fossil fuels expended on machinery and log transport. Then there is the energy-intensiveness of the pulping process, which can result in the emission of harmful pollutants into nearby waterways. One must also consider the cost of trucking the towels from manufacturer to client, a data point that will vary widely according to the restroom's distance from the paper mill.

Then there's the hygiene aspect. There are plenty of articles on the inter-ma-net quoting figures on exactly how efficient air-dryers are at spraying you with bacteria (sign in head: "OTHER PEOPLE'S BACTERIA"), but we'll stick to the non-sensationalist attitude of that confidence-inspiring organisation, the NHS, which says, quoting the original study cited by a sensation-seeking newspaper:

This review suggests that paper towels are the best option for settings where containing infections is critical, and may be more effective than hot air dryers. However, if you have no choice – as is the case in most public toilets and workplace washrooms – and only hot air dryers are provided, take extra time to dry your hands thoroughly. There is little evidence that they are any worse than hand towels, other than the extra time spent drying your hands.

(Refresh your memory of how to wash your hands, NHS-style, here.)

But we WANT sensationalism, we hear you cry. Alright, then. Hold onto your hats and whisky glasses. According to one study, blowing hot air on your hands can "increase the number of germs by an astonishing 255 per cent".

255 per cent. Fucking hell. If you must sneeze in our presence, please, for the love of all the things that make life worth living - alcohol, cheese, and Youtube clips of people falling on their arses - do it into a hanky, or your sleeve. And wash your hands. Also, and here's a piece of gratis health advice from your favourite Counsel: You can never use too much garlic. Or whisky. Hic.

Handwashing. Here's how we do it.


Related Reading
Handwashing Extravaganza
A Semi-Intellectual Treat
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Toilet-Roll Holders (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Worcester Cathedral - Revisiting Sacred Ground
How Clean Is Your Phone?
Laudable hygiene awareness at the University of York:
Let's Get Medieval: The King's Manor


One final treat: a cheerful hand-washing demonstration (incorporating, we note, the advice "dry your hands with a paper towel").

Handwashing Extravaganza!

Jealousy really is the greatest motivator. Semi-Intellectual Friend recently started a blog, and we found ourselves insanely jealous of his foxy format and vigorous videos. Determined not to be outdone by a mere novice blogger who's very much the Watson to our Sherlock, we decided to get our heads round this video insertion thing, and found that it was laughably easy! We are now in the process of updating all our posts containing videos (a list of our favourites follows below). What's more, we thought that this was the perfect opportunity to document the many, many hospital handwashing videos out there! You're welcome!

Our favourite hospital handwashing video ever, all categories, is from NHS Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire, in collaboration with Northampton General Hospital and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Gangnam style!

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, there is a special sub-category of handwashing videos featuring hospital staff doing spoofs of Michael Jackson's Beat It. Our favourite one is by the Banner Desert Medical Center and Cardon Children's Medical Center, and features the immortal words "In and out of places touching everything / It doesn't take that long to make sure they're clean / So wash 'em / Just wash 'em", sung in a very pleasant soprano voice.

Jefferson University Hospitals does a very slick, flashy version, which manages to be educational while incorporating a covetable red PVC jacket and a board of bacteria names. Owww!

The staff at Gerber Hospital in Fremont, Michigan, do a cheerful, rocky video in which they promise to "wash my hands for you / Before doing your X-ray or catching your baby". The song was written by an actual hospital employee. Major plus points for the "cha cha cha" at the end!

If you're into arty, French, and just plain weird stuff, which many people are, you may enjoy the contribution from Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève.

A short and cheerful contribution from the Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana.

Finally, in the spirit of education, here's a video showing how to perform a World Health Organisation-approved handwash, which we find both funny and not a little dirty (and not just because of the cheesy jazz music). We're almost sure it's entirely accidental.

Oh, go on, then. Just one more. We love this lady's northern English accent! Sample quote: "Keep rubbin' until the alcohol handrub has dried."

Further reading:
More handwashing
Handwashing with Elvis
Important Public Information
A Semi-Intellectual Treat
Dirty People: We Wash Our Hands of Them!

A Study of the Correlation between the Extremely Scary Toilet Aerosol Effect and Acute OCD in Toilet Bloggers

OCD is extremely common and can manifest itself in many different ways. At the Privy Counsel, we favour hygiene-related OCD (as opposed to, for instance, extreme hoarding, or preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts). As this anxiety disorder seems to have become a bit of a theme lately - we've been bandying the link to our article "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Toilet Roll Holders (But Were Afraid to Ask)" about an awful lot - we thought to ourselves, "hell, why not get a bit festive and do an update on the toilet aerosol effect?" After all, the weekend is approaching!

So, let's talk about the toilet aerosol effect, shall we? This, for the benefit of our non-regular readers, is the phenomenon first described by Dr Charles Gerba, of the University of Arizona, of a mist of bacteria spread across the bathroom by tiny airborne water droplets when flushing the toilet.
The enterprising fellas at Mythbusters conducted a related experiment with toothbrushes. They kept a bunch of toothbrushes in different locations in the bathroom for a month, and then employed a snazzy science lady to check the bacterial levels in the bristles. Obviously what we're all dying to know is, were the toothbrushes infested with faecal bacteria? We think you know, in your heart of hearts, what the answer is.



Festive video - Mythbusters, Surprise Toothbrush MiniMyth

The toilet aerosol effect: A very scary concept. Image from Innovationsupplychain.

The idea of a squadron of water-borne toilet bacteria parachuting down onto your toothbrush is obviously most unpleasant. So what to do? The first thing that springs to many people's minds is to put the toilet lid down when flushing. That bedrock of factual, level-headed journalism, the Daily Mail, favours this approach. Quoting Professor Mark Wilcox at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the Daily Mail says,

"[...] Although it was unlikely that keeping the lid up would be a 'huge' health hazard, their findings suggested patients with a superbug should at least have a dedicated toilet.
He added that their research also had wider implications, telling the Mail Online: 'It would be prudent if there is a lid to put it down after flushing. [...] Some bugs spread more easily to surfaces this way and the norovirus is thought to be one of them. Our advice - put down the lid if it's there and wash your hands afterwards.'"

Professor Wilcox has been studying the spread of the C. Difficile bacteria in hospitals. The study concluded that the lack of hospital toilet lids may impede progress in this field.

C. difficile: So cute. So resistant to antibiotics.  Image from Giant Microbes

However (and there's always a "however" when discussing hygiene), a study by J. Barker and M. V. Jones, published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, comes to a different conclusion. The article, cunningly named "The Potential Spread of Infection Caused by Aerosol Contamination of Surfaces after Flushing a Domestic Toilet", says:

"Closing the toilet lid had little effect in reducing the number of bacteria released into the air which was c. 1000 CFU m−3 after the first flush (data not shown). Although splashes would probably have been contained by closing the lid, there was a gap of 15 mm between the top of the porcelain rim and the seat, and also a gap between the seat and the lid of 12 mm which would allow aerosols to escape into the room. Conversely, Darlow and Bale (1959) found that closing the lid reduced the aerosol concentration by a ratio of 1 : 2 but their measurements were performed using a ‘wash-down’ toilet and an impinger air sampler. In contrast, Bound and Atkinson (1966) found that closing the lid did not significantly reduce the bacterial count in the air from a ‘wash-down’ toilet seeded with E. coli using a slit sampler positioned at seat level."

The idea of toilets spewing out clouds of lethal bacteria so terrifies us
that our capacity for critical thinking has been impaired, and we are reduced
to posting lolcat pictures. Image from Suzannekesten.

While we're all in favour of developing mild-to-life-threatening OCD (this is how we get our kicks in a small town on a very limited budget), there are limits. Some people calling themselves The Maids, expressing concern over the toilet aerosol effect, recommend the following hygiene measures to protect yourself from inhaling nasty microscopic creatures:

• Leave disinfecting wipes in the bathroom and wipe down your sink, drain and faucet handles daily to minimize germs and bacteria. The sink is the most prevalent place for bacteria.
• When cleaning your bathroom weekly, first mist over the sink, toilet and counters with a disinfecting spray. Let the spray dry completely before using other cleaning products.
• After your fiberglass shower, sink and tub are clean and dry, use Turtle Wax. It will protect and polish surfaces and guard against dirt and grime so cleaning is easier the next week.

Frankly, we've got better things to do.

To combat our mounting hysteria, we let ourselves be soothed by the comforting, dulcet tones of Dr Know. Watch his toothbrush-testing video here.

How clean is your toilet? Image from Honeyishrunkthegrief

Further reading:
Potential for aerosolization of Clostridium difficile after flushing toilets: the role of toilet lids in reducing environmental contamination risk (synopsis)
Most hospital C. difficile cases have not spread from other patients
Handwashing tips from the Privy Counsel
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Toilet Rolls (But Were Afraid to Ask)
All OCD-Related Links

The Disabled Toilet in the Physiotherapy Department at York Hospital

For reasons not unrelated to our recent Italian holiday we're spending rather a lot of time at the physiotherapy department at the hospital these days. The toilets there are a dream of hygiene and efficiency, apart from the flushes, which unfortunately splash toilet water all over the seats. Hygeia sits down and weeps at the very thought!

WOW! Mixer-tap! Paper-towel dispenser from Tork! Since this photo was taken,
the soap dispenser has been replaced with an automatic one,
which you don't have to touch. WOW!

An unfortunate flushing arrangement

Bin and toilet paper perfectly fine, but unfortunately, the seat does get splashed when flushing!

Ooh, we like this coat-hook! Purr, purr, purr!

With the extra point we awarded for the touchless soap dispenser, these hospital conveniences get 8 points, and that's despite not getting a point for being clean! (Of course they are extremely clean, but we just can't get over the yucky, wet toilet seat)!

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Wigginton Road
York, YO31 8HE
http://www.yorkhospitals.nhs.uk/?id=91&ob=1

On the Eighth Day God Created Paratroopers, But He Forgot the Soap

Yesterday we donned our favourite tweeds and went for a brisk stroll in the countryside. The weather was bracing, with the feisty hurricane Katia in mischievous mood. We enjoyed the scenery, just outside the little village of Catterick, very much; there was an abundance of moorland, woods, pine trees, juniper bushes, etc, to gladden the eye and put a song in the heart of even the most cantankerous old sergeant-major. A legion or so of strapping young men in uniform lined the way, cheering us on during our outing - most invigorating!
If you hadn't guessed already, we happened to be taking part in the Paras 10 race at Catterick Garrison, in aid of the Parachute Regiment charity! It was a fantastic day, and we recommend the experience warmly to anyone who likes running, or who just likes pain.

We've got some exciting interiors of a disability toilet to show you, as well as a portaloo!

The disabled toilet at Catterick garrison: Most clean and hygienic, with plenty of space.

A mixer tap and paper towels! However, there was no soap. Also, note the paper towel already scrunched up and discarded in an odd place, due to the lack of a bin. (Hygeia frowns.)

One can only applaud this military anti-bacterial campaign

We love NHS posters aimed at the military! Getting tested for chlamydia is "a piece of piss" apparently!

Getting tested is easier than you think

A close-up of the mixer tap, because we loved it!

Unfortunately, despite the admirable cleanliness and the mixer tap, this toilet only earns 1 measly point, due to the lack of soap, bin, coathook and toilet roll holder! The lack of a bin actually had comical consequences, as at the end of the day there was a pile of paper towels reaching halfway to the ceiling in one corner! One pities whoever was on latrine duty that day...

Now for the portaloo.

Early in the day and the portaloo is well stocked with bog roll, paper towels and soap

Hygienic paper towels

The toilet. Perfectly civilised, if somewhat muddy - perfectly understandable

The amount of toilet roll needed was seriously underestimated

The portaloo gets 4 points. Though there wasn't nearly enough toilet paper for all the runners, the loos were clean (at least during the early part of the day) and smelled very pleasantly of eucalyptus!

All in all, we had a smashing time at Catterick. The scenery really was astounding, and the Paras had put up cheering signs along the way, with slogans such as "Train hard - fight easy" and "On the eighth day God created paratroopers, and the Devil stood to attention". The pain is temporary and the mud was easy to wash off.

More Handwashing

Yesterday we posted yet another educational rant about taps. While plumbing the depths of the internet looking for toilet-related news (we maintain ceaseless vigilance on the toilet front to bring you entertaining and edifying facts) we found some videos that you may find, well, entertaining and edifying.  Let's start with the handwashing rap, dreamed up by some NHS nurses on a handwashing crusade:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7980219/NHS-hospital-records-rap-song-about-hand-washing.html

We continue with a distinctly cooler but less educational video:

Finally, and this is probably our favourite, a Michael Jackson cover with a hygiene-related theme!

(Notice how NHS staff always seem to have access to mixer taps? Does that tell you something about the hygienic aspects of such a device? For more information on the NHS guidelines for handwashing, look here.)

Stick one of these on your boyfriend's forehead.
(Image from healthpm.com.)

A Touch of OCD: NHS toilets

 Oh, the NHS! Love 'em or hate 'em, at least they've got super clean toilets! (If you missed our review of the patients' toilets at York hospital, you can read it here.) There's nothing quite like that obsessive-compulsive scent of disinfectants that you encounter in NHS loos. We visited our local GP surgery recently, and thought we'd share our experience.

Cleanliness-wise, we've got no complaints, and discovering that the toilet has a water-saver flush puts a gilt edge on this toilet encounter!

This made our day

However, and this seems to be a theme all of a sudden, there is no toilet-roll holder! There are toilet rolls lying loose on top of the heater, which is not only unhygienic, but also a fire hazard.
The bin (not pictured) is hygienically covered, and pleasantly distanced from the user. The coat-hook is sturdy, as befits a public healthcare coat-hook.

The taps are, predictably, separated, unlike the ones shown in the NHS promotional video for handwashing. However, to make the experience an enjoyable one, there is antibacterial gel as well as soap, and a helpful poster reminding one how to wash one's hands most efficiently. The experience is nicely rounded off with pleasant paper towels, as per NHS guidelines.

It's important to reach into every crevice.

All present and correct

A titillating close-up of the soap and anti-bac gel

Sigh.

Points: 7/15

York Hospital - Getting Clinical

We are feeling a bit neurotic and clinical today; therefore we post a review of the patients' toilets at York Hospital.

 

The whole of the facilities is exceptionally clean and, indeed, exudes the aromatic scent of disinfectants, as one would expect.  The toilet roll is plain white, and hygienically enclosed in a holder.  The bin is rather full, but at an agreeable distance from the user.  The coat hook is absolutely splendid.  The flush is the horizontal lever variety, and is averagely awkward to pull.

 Moving on to the taps, they are mixer taps, but there is no hot water.  The soap is unscented, as is appropriate for a hospital, and contains moisturiser; a pleasant touch.  There is a motion-sensor paper-towel dispenser. An agreeable surprise! We would have liked to be able to present you with a picture of this technological marvel, but unfortunately there were rather a lot of visitors, and one doesn't like to display one's eccentricity in public.

It is not possible to exit without touching the door handle.

Total points: 9/15

York Hospital

Wiggington Road

York YO31 8HE