Public restrooms - designed to contaminate?

Are public restrooms designed by people who give little or no thought to the actual purpose of the handwashing areas?  Are they trying to make us sick?  Now before you leap to the conclusion that I'm referring to the actual "toilets" themselves as the source of exposure (side note - discussed those in a previous blog),  I'm referring to the handwashing facilities - everything from the sinks to the faucets to the hand drying devices. 

Am I a "germaphobe"?  I don't think so.  However, I do travel a lot so am in and out of public "facilities" on a regular basis.  Given the big concern about healthcare costs in this country....my thought is if we spent a little bit more to prevent exposure, we'd have healthier citizens and therefore spend less trying to get them well after they become sick.

 I also should point out that we healthcare professionals have it pounded into our heads that the number 1 way to prevent infections is hand-washing. Perhaps that's what drives these observations.

Let's start with the sinks.  Its pretty common for the surfaces around the sinks to be very wet.  A breeding ground for bacteria. You might want to consider this when you're ready to lay your personal belongings on the wet area.   I like it when there are automatic faucets so you don't have to touch faucet handles.  Here's a well-designed sink - essentially a trough.  (Champaign/IL airport).  (side note:  don't you hate  faucets with sensors that no matter where you place your hands, you can't seem to get the water to come out?) 

The soap dispensers become another source of contamination unless they, too, are automated.  Anytime you have to push a lever on a dispenser, you're more than likely picking up bacteria on that hand.  Some places have installed automatic soap dispensers, but not many.

Then there are the various options for hand drying.  The worst are the cloth ones ...where you pull on both sides of the cloth to get to a dry section.  The problem is, you've just washed your hands and now you're potentially contaminating them by having to touch a wet section of cloth (where someone else just dried their hands) in order to get a fresh/dry section. 

There are lever- operated paper towel dispensers...also not good because invariably the lever is still wet from the previous person.  The longer the lever stays wet, the higher the likelihood its contaminated.  An additional issue as displayed in the picture below, not only is there a lever, there's also very little space between the waste container and the paper towel when it is dispensed so unless you use your other hand to grab it as its coming out, it too gets contaminated.  Terrible design!  Ideally, you should first get the paper towels out and ready so that when you're finished washing your hands, you don't have to touch the lever.  Can't tell you how many times I've done that only to see another person come along and take what I just dispensed.

My preference are the dispensers where you don't touch anything...just "wave" your hand in front of a sensor and the paper towel is automatically dispensed.  (side note:  have you ever noticed that some of these are set to dispense a small section of towel so you have to wait a few seconds and repeat the process so you get a large enough section to actually dry your hands?  I assume this is a cost control measure....so it always makes me wonder if they are actually using more rolls of towels because people generally wait and add a second section???)

This one had both an automatic soap and towel dispenser.

The air dryers are better although they often take longer. Recently I encountered an unusual air dryer..it was at the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago.  Honestly I wasn't quite sure what it was at first...and I wasn't sure how it worked.  You just place both hands inside the slot and the air starts blasting.  Rapid drying.  The most high tech hand dryers I've seen. 

Last, your final exposure comes as you leave the restroom IF there is a door that you have to open using your hands.  One thing I like about O'Hare airport is the bathrooms have no doors...they are designed so  you walk in and out through an open doorway. (Detroit's newer airport is also like this..).  I ate at a restaurant in Florida a few weeks ago that had an electronic door opener...wave your hand and a sensor opens the door. 

At the Pittsburg/PA airport there are signs posted in the bathrooms with some basic handwashing instructions.  Seems silly in some ways but if you've ever watched people wash their hands in public restrooms, they do need the reminder.  Notice how it not only tells you how to wash your hands, it tells you to use the paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door.  Of course this is the home of the paper towel dispensers that require you to use a lever to get the towel so they aren't making it easy.

Seriously, how often do you see someone wash their hands in a public bathroom for 30 seconds?   

Here's a sink from the Jacksonville, Florida airport. Actually, I'm not sure you can even call this a sink...it was simply a flat piece of Corian (or a similar material) that was slanted so the water ran towards the back and fell into a trough. 

There were small openings evenly spaced on the surface for the disposal of paper towels - very nice as it prevents people from walking across the floor with water dripping off their hands!!  Everything automated.  The faucet, the soap dispenser and the towel dispenser.  No need to touch anything.  First public restroom I've been in that had everything designed in a way that avoids contamination!!

I hope some bathroom designers read this......we need better handwashing facilities.  In the meantime, if you don't want to get sick, pay attention to the possible contaminants in public bathrooms.