There comes a time when a person has to stand up and speak up about a topic that may seem a little intrusive into the personal choices of others.   Consider this one of those times.  Consider this my public safety message about cleanliness.

Recently, I was in a ladies restroom standing at the sink thoroughly washing my hands.   I think I was on the second wash because I normally wash them three times when I use a public restroom.   I am a fanatic about washing my hands because that is what we did in my mother’s house.

So, I am standing there washing my hands looking in the mirror to check my lipstick when the door opened on another stall.    A woman walked out and walked right out of the restroom door.    She walked right by the wall of sinks and never looked at them.   She put her nasty hand on the door handle and walked right out into the hallway to continue her day.   I looked at the door handle and visions of creepy, crawly germs danced through my head.

A memory popped into my head of a time in the far past when I was out with my mother and we were in public ladies room.    Another woman there did the same thing.    My mother, who is known for her “flair” with comments, looked at me and said, “She must think she piss champagne!”   Being younger, I was a little embarrassed at what my mother said especially because there were other women in the restroom who heard it.   Now, I have grown up enough to echo her comment here because there is a need to talk about this nasty and hidden phenomenon that happens in restrooms across the globe.

To state it simply, there are persons who perform the most unclean function of the human body and do not wash their hands.   They are touching everything that you touch – the doorknob in a building, the stylus you use in the grocery/department store when paying by credit card, the pen you use to sign in at the bank, doctor’s office, etc….  Even worse, they are probably the ones that always prepare that dish you like at the office party or the church pot-luck.  When I think about it my stomach gets queasy.

In my opinion, this behavior is unacceptable.   Therefore, I am taking a moment here to point out a few bacteria that can be passed by this type of behavior.

• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis A
• MRSA – Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
• VRE – Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus

These bacteria are rampant in our communities and should be a concern for all.

In my circle of girlfriends, I know of a “friend of a friend” that had a common surgery, carpal tunnel, on her hand.   The surgery was successful and she was released to go home.    Some days later, she became seriously ill, succumbed to a coma, and within a couple of weeks she died.   The cause was MRSA.    No one knows how she contacted it.  Perhaps she touched a nasty door handle and then redressed her bandage on her hand or she did some grocery shopping and used a nasty stylus.    We will never know.  She left behind 3 sons.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to put my hands on someone else’s excrements.   I don’t even want mine on my hands and that is why I wash them many times a day.   The reality is I don’t know how we can combat this issue because it is a person’s personal choice to wash or not wash their hands.   Perhaps a little “poke” will help and this is the intent of this post.   Pass it along in your circles.

Maybe the restroom sign that says PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS should be changed to:

ARE YOU PISSING CHAMPAGNE?

IF NOT, THEN WASH YOUR !@#$ HANDS!

Perhaps that would get the attention of the non-washers and get better results.

Question(s):

What do you think about my restroom sign suggestion?

Do you think it would be effective?