DEAR ABBY: I teach fifth-grade students. I was told that you once had a column on the importance of washing one's hands after using the bathroom. Please find it and run it again. My colleagues agree it is urgently needed. Thank you. - TACOMA, WASH.
DEAR TACOMA: Here it is:DEAR ABBY: People come to you with every conceivable problem, so I'm encouraged to present one that is so touchy I've never seen it mentioned in your column.
How do you get people to wash their hands after using the bathroom? In our home, the bathroom is right off the kitchen, and when the water is turned on, it can be heard in the next room. Guests have gone into our bathroom, used the toilet (I can hear it being flushed) and then come out without having turned on the faucet, so I know they haven't washed their hands. Then after supper, they offer to help me dry the dishes! (I always say no thank you.) There's no telling what kind of infection could be transferred to my dishes from those unwashed hands.
Worse yet, where I work there's a cafeteria, and I've seen some cafeteria employees walk out of a bathroom stall and go straight out to serve the people without having washed their hands. Some of them even wipe and polish dishes as they come out of the dishwasher. Can you imagine the disease risks a diner faces when he uses these "freshly washed" dishes?
Abby, please explain how dangerous this is. If you print this, I promise to frame it and hang it above our toilet. Thank you. - PLEASE WASH IN WINONA, MINN.
DEAR PLEASE: I cannot stress too emphatically how important this one specific area of hygiene is to good general health. Children should be taught to wash their hands with soap (preferably a disinfectant type) after using the bathroom, and adults should have made it a lifelong habit.
Last November the Mayo Clinic, the medical mecca of the world, sponsored an "Infection Awareness Week" program. As part of its campaign, prominently displayed along the corridors of the Mayo hospital complex were posters showing a pair of hands under this terse message: "The 10 Most Common Causes of Infection."
To remind doctors, nurses and employees of the Mayo Clinic to wash their hands frequently were other posters bearing this catchy message: "A milligram of handwashing is worth a kilogram of antibiotics."
One final no-no on this subject: One must never use a napkin from the table as a handkerchief and then carelessly allow it to be mixed with other napkins on the table. Quite often a careless waiter or bus person will use soiled napkins to wipe off the table. This is almost as unforgivable as the aforementioned dirty toilet habits. The solution is to use a napkin as a napkin and a handkerchief as a handkerchief, and be certain each is deposited in its proper place when no longer needed.
DEAR ABBY: My parents are disappointed because I do not want to go to college. I want to go to trade school. What should I do? - NOT COLLEGE-MINDED
DEAR NOT COLLEGE-MINDED: Go to a trade school if that's what you want to do. To quote John Gardner:
"An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
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