work colleague who doesnt wash her hands!!

You can give the tap a quick wash too, before rinsing your hands.

As disgusting and unhygienic as it is I don't think it's right for you to say anything. That's just my opinion.

You find these sort of people in the ladies loo in a supermarket
Call me neurotic but I always carry wipes and a hand sanitizer with me when I go shopping and I wipe the handle on a supermarket trolley before I touch it.
Well you never know, better safe than sorry.

I also hate to see non hand washers, or people who simply give their hands a quick run under the tap after using the loo , without using soap, and then use a communal towel !

But I am too cowardly to say anything, just try to " tailgate " through the door behind someone else so that I don't have to touch the handle !

And think about all the times we are touching "contaminated " surfaces, e.g escalators, door handles etc, but because we haven't actually seen unwashed hands touch them, we tend not to think about it. As the saying goes, " we all have to eat a peck of dirt " etc

I use elbows or a piece of toilet paper or a tissue.

Coins are surely great carriers and spreaders of germs - I always have the urge to wash my hands after touching money. When I was little, I never wanted to touch money; I think I was about 5 or 6 until I could bring myself to hold a coin.

And talking about people at work - there are those who empty the dishwasher and stand the glasses rim downwards in the cupboard.

The cupboard has been wiped out twice at the most in the whole 16 years I've worked there - I hate to think what has accumulated in that time. I have to wash the glasses before I can use them.

Be careful with this one, aGran2. The same could be thought of me because I use an antisceptic wet wipe whilst I am still in the cubicle. Started this when adverse comments came out about the use of hand driers. Maybe I should relview and do this at the basins. Never thought about other people's' thinking. Mmmmmm.......

Leave some hand wipes on her desk and hope she gets the message

Pose the question "I always wash my hands after using the toilet, do you" But I would add it's a waste of time really 'cos of all the germs on taps and door handles. Having a hand sanitizer is a better hygiene option.

I'm a bit obsessive about toilet germs so I hate it when people don't wash their hands or worse still let cold water run on them and dry them as if they've been washed. So they give the impression of washing when they aren't.

I have been known to wait for someone else to open the exit door so I can catch it with my elbow and not have to touch the handle. Other than that I use a piece of tissue or paper towel so I don't have to touch the handle directly.

That said, however, I don't know that approaching your co-worker is a good idea. You don't know how she'd take it and it could sour working relationships. Just be aware that you never know what's lurking around the toilets so be careful what you touch.

Whilst on this subject did anyone see the holiday show on the BBC the other day taking about cleaning in hotels. Turns out they found one hotel where the cleaner wiped the bathroom glasses with the same cloth she used to wipe the toilet so the glasses were contaminated with everything you can imagine. Just something else to think about for the germ obsessed like me

I had a colleague who never had a tissue so just sneezed into her hand and she thought that was acceptable - never gave a thought to what she touched afterwards! Seems we all have different standards.

I worked in a bank and money is filthy I czn confirm. We continually washed hands and we all tried never to touch our own faces until we had washed our hands.
I work in a building where the toilets are shared with a large number of people and I feel they are never clean so it's handwash at sink also use wipes and hand sabatier.
We move from desk to desk on a weekly basis so it's wipes to clean desk, keyboard, mouse and phone before the day begins.

I heard this a few weeks ago on the radio so I'm now a bit ' freaked ' out about all toilets. Someone said that they have a big thing about the flush handle/ push button , so they use the paper they've wiped themself with. I'm mortified everytime I now flush and have to use lots of ' clean ' paper to cover the handle. It's a terrible thought that lots of people may be doing this !

In the ladies loo I have a small amount of water in my hand and run it over the tap before turning it off - that's a tip from Kim and Aggie's book! You then have a temporary barrier between your hands and any germs...or so they say!. I always carry a tiny bottle of hand sanitiser too so if I am going to eat out I use that first. Hands are washed as soon as I get home and before unpacking shopping and putting it in the fridge. I'm not obsessive as I do feel we need to 'eat a peck' etc. but a friend caught MRSA out of the blue - 'told it was probably from door handles or similar - and was so ill, with awful abscesses on her face and neck, that I just feel the hand wash on arriving home and before handling food is the best way to help prevent. I have seen a man sneeze copiously into his hands, rub them together...and then open the door of the restaurant I was sitting in! Yuk.

I was born in a working class district in Glasgow, in the 1930s. There was muck and germs everywhere. We weren't continually washing our hands. Myself and others from that era, have lived long and healthy lives, it didn't do us any harm. As long as we washed our hands before meals.

We had this when I was working in a big office. One woman never washed her hands. A lot of us had noticed as the loo was somewhere we could congregate for a moan- it was very large!

She was a very nice person & worked in my section but she could be quite fiery in the wrong situation.

We asked personnel for a notice in the loo & they obliged but it made no difference.

I don't think anyone ever spoke to her about it- I was her section leader so I suppose I should have done but I thought there are so many germs around an office anyway it probably wasn't a huge concern. She always dashed in- had a quick wee & dashed out again so I think it was more that she didn't like using public loos anyway.
We all survived.

Why cause yourself a headache? Just wash your own hands more, germs are everywhere and can't be avoided. I worked in a hospital and men rarely washed their hands they were in and out of the toilet opposite like a flash.........didn't notice men being sicker than women.

Sort your own hygiene, always wash hands before food etc and you will be fine.

We maybe fuss too much. Remember when library books had to be fumigated if there was disease at home? Then it was found to be pointless. 'Germs' are everywhere. Wash your hands if dealing with food.

OK, so here goes for a cyber bashing!!! I have wondered this for years, and no doubt there will be someone who can put me straight.

Before I go on, though, I would state clearly, that I DO wash hands after using the loo.

But. What ARE these germs we need to cleanse from us. And where are they lurking. I don't know about anyone else, but after I have used the toilet, I don't wipe with bare hands. So where am I getting these germs from?

As I understand it, germs are everywhere, and are unavoidable. Do we insist everyone washes their hands after they have coughed? Or sneezed? Or poked around in their ears, or up their noses? Because if we don't, then everything that is touched after these events, and even without them, is germ ridden.

Should we then be washing our own hands every time we touch a door handle, or light switch? How many of us wash our hands after handling money - surely a major carrier of germs? Or are some germs more acceptable than others? As I understand it, urine is sterile, so not many germs from that.

I used to keep a bottle of hand sanitiser in my pocket, and I'd use it before exiting the toilet cubicle. I don't do that any more after it occurred to me that the "down their noses" looks I was getting from other people probably stemmed from their assumption that I was a dirty moo.

I do wash my hands but I would point out that fresh urine is actually sterile and a quick swish under cold water is probably enough.
Faeces are of course another matter .
You could try notices but there are people everywhere 'contaminating'everything we touch so unless you have a compromised immune system I'd try not to worry about it.
On a recent long haul I did wipe my tray seat and the screen in front of me quite thoroughly with sanitised wipes as I tend to come back from holidays with a cold and I do wonder, although apparently its a myth that its the aircon on planes .Accompanying daughter was mortified.And it didnt work.

Ever since I saw a notice in a loo saying " wash your hands , germs jump through toilet paper " I have thought that using a thicker wad helps , but I hate washing my hands where there is a towel or those hot air blowers , I keep a few serviettes in my hand bag to dry my hands

Germs are everywhere! Yes, they are, but that is no excuse for not washing your hands after a sit down in the loo. E-Coli, Salmonella, and other horrible things can be caught by touching door handles and toilet seats....eating raw meat too but that is another story. Would you want to eat anything that was handled by someone who had just visited the toilet and come out without washing their hands? If you say 'No', then don't be a hypocrite, wash your own hands. It doesn't take long and it makes sure you do not infect other people with what could be life changing illnesses.

I know how ill Salmonella makes people. My own son nearly died from it as a baby. He caught it in the hospital! Everyone had to be tested so they found out who it was that was the carrier.

Next time she goes to the loo, follow her and be at the washbasins as she exits the cubicle. Just say very casually something like' oops you forgot to wash your hands, must be the pressure of work'. Make a joke of it and surely she would be too embarrassed not to wash them. While she's doing that you could even (if you're brave enough) add that you know some people who don't bother but you're sure she's not like that.

Note: That hand cleaner stuff you see in hospitals and doctors surgeries is for you to use. It is there because people go to hospital and the doctors because they are ill! Get the connection? It kills germs and will kill any that you have accumulated throughout the day so give it a whirl, it keeps people safer.

I read something recently that said the hot air dryers actually distribute germs.

My health professional daughter says soapand water is much more effective than hand sanitiser -and doctors are the worst offenders ...
Interestingly in Japan water isnt always provided in loos, rarely soap and towels/blowers only in posh places. TheJapanese appear to carry their own little towels everywhere. Sort of negates (most of them) wearing face masks we thought