We're starting to pack the car for the trek homeward. It's a thousand mile drive so we aren't going to do it in a day. But in my youth I once drove alone for 17 straight hours in a VW beetle that had no radio, stopping only to gas up and use the bathroom. Which brings me to this post from earlier this year (February), not about washing your hands after using a public bathroom ( hope you do), but about the vexing problem of drying them once you've washed them:
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And the even less discussed problem - opening the bathroom door afterwards.
And unless you're in a high-tech bathroom with sensors, there's also the flush handle and the faucet knobs.
Like Dunc pointed out, I hate it when I've washed my hands then discover that the door has a handle and opens toward you. That's when I use my pinky method for opening the door. Yes, I'm a little neurotic.
I never give the results of a study that is paid for by an industry much credence. They usually only pay for results that support their profits. In this case the "tissue paper industry" paid for a study that says you should use paper to dry your hands... duh.
I personally think the paper towel waste problem is significant and I don't usually use them to dry my hands. This makes for fewer dead trees and less landfill. I use air dryers where available or use a clean, cloth handkerchief which I always carry. (I started doing this after a visit to Japan 15 years ago. Japan is very clean and civilized and everyone carries their own hand drying cloth... no paper towels.)
BTW, the Dyson Airblade dryers are very nice and work very well.
I just grab a piece of TP if there are no paper towels and open the door with that. You can always use hand gel on the door handle.
There are germs on the door handles. There are germs everywhere. You simply cannot possibly avoid touching lots and lots of germs during the day.
We have a (now governmentally encouraged) fear of germs bordering on the pathological. Keep basically clean, wash before eating etc, but damn, let's be a bit more rational.
[when I spent time in Japan about 25 years ago, I really enjoyed the culture, but many of the people I met had an irrational fear of germs, and would buy into any quack science 'germ reduction' product]
What Jay #6 said.
What's the deal with public bathrooms? Are they somehow more disease-ridden than the adjacent convenience store?
I don't pee on my hands. Normal urine is sterile, so if you want washing, it'd probably be better if I did. I don't touch my wee-wee, which is probably one of the cleaner parts of my anatomy, having been tucked away in clean cotton since my morning shower.
Dry 'em on your fucking pants!
Jet Towel em!!! It's the only way!!