Hand Hygiene Awareness
NEWSLETTER
NEWSLETTER

Hand Hygiene Awareness
GROSS! Your hands are gross. It’s a fact of life.
You touch hundreds of surfaces a day, all of which contain their own little worlds of nasty germs.
- Germs can survive for up to three hours on your hands.
- There are between 2 –10 million bacteria on your fingertips and elbows alone.
- The number of germs on your fingertips doubles after you use the toilet.
- When you don’t wash your hands, you transfer germs to the food and drinks you eat.
- Your hands spread 1000 times more germs when they are damp than when they are dry.
FUN “Germ” FACTS
- One germ can multiply into more than 8 million germs in one day.
- Nearly 80% of all illness-causing germs are spread by your hands.
- Your remote control is a top carrier of bacteria.
- There are more germs on your phone, keyboard, and cutting board than on a toilet seat.
- One in five people don’t wash their hands after using the washroom.
- When you flush the toilet, germs can spray up to 6 feet.
- Purses and handbags have up to 10, 000 bacteria per square inch, and 30% of them contain fecal bacteria.
Submitted by Wendy Finlayson,
Infection Control Nurse