A Better Way To Clean

This lead article in the January 2007 edition of the Harvard Health Letter presents the case that good hand hygiene is achieved through a balanced use of hand washing with soap and water and judicious use of alcohol based hand sanitizers. Their argument is solid, well supported, and seems to makes good sense. Balance is a healthy place to be and a natural consequence of good design. However, articles like this often present reasonable, balanced solutions but offer little in the way of practical advice. After reading this article two important questions remain unanswered:

• How do we find and achieve balance in our personal hygiene practices?
• Is balance a reasonable expectation in an environment that wasn’t designed for hygiene in the first place?

The hygiene problem has long been and still remains one of poor compliance with simple personal hygiene practices. No one wants to get sick but most don’t wash their hands adequately or use alcohol based hand sanitizers properly. Those that do, germaphobes and politicians, tend towards excessive handwashing or overuse of alcohol based products which can damage the skin and increase the risk for illness. This article points out that what is needed is moderation and balance. However, finding balance and staying in that “sweet spot” between noncompliance and overdoing it adds yet another layer of complexity to the problem of personal hygiene. Ironically, complexity is as much a cause of noncompliance as any other factor and we shouldn’t expect much improvement in compliance by increasing complexity.

The fact is that the general public finds handwashing in public restrooms inconvenient and frequently disgusting. Often the facilities are poorly stocked, inadequately maintained, smelly, and filthy. Similarly, even the 1% of the public who are regular users of alcohol based hand sanitizers confess that don’t like the way that they feel or make their skin feel. The solution to compliance is probably as simple and straightforward as redesigning our environment to facilitate hygiene – Design for Hygiene. If we provide plenty of clean, well stocked public handwashing facilities, and give people safe and effective hand hygiene products that feel good and nurture healthy skin, compliance and balance will follow naturally.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 9:10 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.