The first week of December is National Hand Washing Awareness Week… Making a habit of good hand hygiene is an easy, effective way to prevent infections and sicknesses. If you’re someone that chooses to skip the hand washing once in a while, read these mind blowing statistics and you might think again next time!

  • 80% of communicable diseases can be transferred by touch (person-to-person contact).
  • Washing your hands a few times a day can reduce diarrhea rates by 40%.
  • Touching your face with dirty hands spreads sicknesses pneumonia, a cold, and the flu.
  • Pneumonia is the number one cause of childhood death, and is preventable by regular hand washing.
  • The two most important times to wash your hands are before and after preparing food, and after going to the bathroom.
  • Less than 75% of women and less than 50% of men wash their hands after using the bathroom
  • When you flush a toilet with the seat up, a mist containing bacteria is spread over about 6 square meters. Even worse… Sinks in public bathrooms are 90% covered in this bacteria.
  • The ideal amount of time to wash your hands is 30 seconds, but 15 is recommended at the very least.
  • Most bacteria on our hands is under our fingernails, so when you’re washing, be sure to scrub underneath them.
  • Damp hands are 1,000 times more likely to spread bacteria than dry hands, yet only 20% of people dry their hands after they wash them.
  • Reusable cloth towels have millions of bacteria in their fibers. Using disposable paper towels is the cleanest way to dry your hands.
  • Studies show that people who wash their hands have 24% less sick days because of respiratory illness, and 51% fewer sick days due to a sick stomach.

Are you grossed out yet!? Sorry, but we had to let you know.

Make it a point to wash your hands several times a day, and use #NationalHandWashingWeek to post on social media to spread the word (but not the germs)! This is a great one to post about on social media because the more your friends and family wash their hands, the safer from illnesses you’ll all be!