How to Wash your Hands

All the recent news about Swine flu has health care professionals advising the public to wash their hands correctly and not just rinse them under water for a few seconds. In fact, the Center for Disease Control maintains that only one in five people wash their hands the right way. However, few sources explain how to properly wash to hands to eliminate all of the potentially harmful germs and bacteria. Below are a few hints:

1. Lather your hands for a full 30 seconds. When I worked in restaurants, they told us to hum “Happy Birthday” to ourselves. The song is 30 seconds long.

2. Use soap. (should be obvious, no?)

3. Apply the soap first and work into your hands before running the water. This gives the soap a chance to “zap” those germs on your hands.

4. Make sure to dry your hands thoroughly.

(photo credit: stock xchng)