# Toilet doors and hygiene



## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

This has bugged me for years. You know when you're out in a pub or restaurant, visit the toilet, do your business, wash your hands (making sure to depress the tap with your elbow), dry your hands (preferably with paper towels), then turn around to find that the door opens IN so you have to grab what is surely a filthy doorhandle in order to get out.

Fair enough in a busy pub you can just wait a few seconds and someone else is bound to come along, allowing you to keep the door open with your foot. Or you can (as I do) open the door with your little finger, but still, you're touching it. It really bugs me, what would be wrong with a door that swings out that you could just push with your foot? You go to all the trouble of washing and drying to have it all undone.

I know that you are still accepting change, leaning on the bar and myriad other things that are all probably just as unhygienic but this a psychologically tough one that could be easily remedied.


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## DeeFox (30 Mar 2009)

I see your point but what about shaking hands with people and opening other doors, etc all day - it would drive you crazy if you got hung up about it.


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## Caveat (30 Mar 2009)

You probably have a point but I don't really think about it. 

What about the inside/outside door of the cubicle itself, the table tops in the bar, the glasses you drink out of, the menus you handle...it's endless really.


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

Its just that this would be such an easy one to fix, just hang the hinges the other way! I know one could get hung up about things if one thought too  much about it but this one really gets me. Maybe its slightly different in the men's. I mean (don't want to get too graphic), drunk guy comes in, obviously has to have physical contact with something I don't particularly want to have contact with, doesn't wash his hands, then opens the door. I then have to grab that exact same handle.


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## Ham Slicer (30 Mar 2009)

You need to dry your hands with some toliet roll and use this to open the door and then throw it behind the door as you leave.  You'll notice every now and again there will be a pile of toilet roll behind a door - that's like minded people.  

If no toilet roll is available you need to try get your foot up to pull the door open.  I've been doing this for years.

Getting old now and it's getting harder to get that leg up but I will never open a door with my hand.  I had to wait in a pub toilet for 20 minutes one night for someone to come in and open the door for me.

Spread the word.


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## Guest128 (30 Mar 2009)

Ham Slicer said:


> I had to wait in a pub toilet for 20 minutes one night for someone to come in and open the door for me.



Ah come on !!!


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## gillarosa (30 Mar 2009)

I do a variation on Hamslicers theme, use a hand tissue provided to dry hands and hold on to it for opening door, if the basket isn't situated close to the door I bring it with me and deposit it in the nearest one outside. If there aren't disposable hand towels I pull the bottom of my sleeve down and use it over my hand to open door.


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## Ham Slicer (30 Mar 2009)

FLANDERS` said:


> Ah come on !!!



I never said it wasn't a mild obsession but I'd rather wait than have urine all over my hands.


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## MrMan (30 Mar 2009)

I have never seen someone open the door with toilet role, ye are starting to sound like wacko jacko! How would ye get out of the conundrum - old friend you haven't seen in years is clearly drunk and tries to shake your hand while doing his business I think baldyman might actually collapse! There is no escaping germs I wouldn't let them run my life.


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## Smashbox (30 Mar 2009)

For safety reasons, the exit doors are supposed to push open, as opposed to pull. If there is a fire or some other emergency, you are not supposed to pull the exit doors, but rather push them out.

Same goes for bathroom doors, them being an exit out into the building in question.


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

MrMan said:


> I have never seen someone open the door with toilet role, ye are starting to sound like wacko jacko! How would ye get out of the conundrum - old friend you haven't seen in years is clearly drunk and tries to shake your hand while doing his business I think baldyman might actually collapse! There is no escaping germs I wouldn't let them run my life.


 
I'm starting to think I'm a freak now! Think I'll just adopt the toilet roll approach.


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## Smashbox (30 Mar 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> I'm starting to think I'm a freak now!


 
Only now?!


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## z103 (30 Mar 2009)

My immune system handles most of the above situations.

Consider if someone farts, and you smell it, that you are inhaling what was a few minutes ago inside their rectum. Minute particles sticking to your nostril hairs and inside your lungs.

Disgust is largely in the mind.


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## Ham Slicer (30 Mar 2009)

MrMan said:


> I have never seen someone open the door with toilet role, ye are starting to sound like wacko jacko! How would ye get out of the conundrum - old friend you haven't seen in years is clearly drunk and tries to shake your hand while doing his business I think baldyman might actually collapse! There is no escaping germs I wouldn't let them run my life.



You wouldn't see me using toilet roll to open the door.  If you were in the bathroom with me I'd just wait for you to open the door for me.  So in fact you may have opened the door for me at some time so thanks for that.

Sometimes shaking hands can't be avoided but sometimes a pat on the back will get you out of it otherwise a swift visit to the bathroom has to suffice.

The system isn't 100% fool proof and I'm always working on ways to improve it.


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## Caveat (30 Mar 2009)

leghorn said:


> Disgust is largely in the mind.


 
Well it is now leghorn.  Thanks for the vivid picture!


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

leghorn said:


> My immune system handles most of the above situations.
> 
> Consider if someone farts, and you smell it, that you are inhaling what was a few minutes ago inside their rectum. Minute particles sticking to your nostril hairs and inside your lungs.
> 
> Disgust is largely in the mind.


 
My thoughts exactly, its akin to actually eating someone else's ......This came up the other day as I was travelling with a friend in a car. We both 'puffed' at the same time (silently, of course, therefore not realising the other had done so) and, being men, had to have a good sniff to assess the quality of what we thought was our own. It was only when we both rolled down our windows that we realised what had happened. Disgusting.


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## Chocks away (30 Mar 2009)

Ham Slicer said:


> Getting old now and it's getting harder to get that leg up but I will never open a door with my hand.  I had to wait in a pub toilet for 20 minutes one night for someone to come in and open the door for me.



Now if your boss just happened to see you going in but didn't see you leaving and he went to relieve herself/himself 20 mins later, the wrong impression may be taken. Clearly a case of OCD.


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## Ham Slicer (30 Mar 2009)

OCD - definitely.

It wouldn't happen in work as I have my own bathroom with sterilising chamber.  Only Joking

We all know that very few men wash their hands in the bathroom and I believe women are not much better.  So will anyone here admit to not washing their hands when using a bathroom?  I posed this question before on this site and despite a lot of people telling me I was odd, OCD and it was only germs - nobody was prepared to answer.

Anyone want to put their unclean hand up?


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## gillarosa (30 Mar 2009)

MrMan said:


> I have never seen someone open the door with toilet role, ye are starting to sound like wacko jacko! How would ye get out of the conundrum - old friend you haven't seen in years is clearly drunk and tries to shake your hand while doing his business I think baldyman might actually collapse! There is no escaping germs I wouldn't let them run my life.


 
Thankfully haven't been in that position at the urinal with the friendly old friend, but I do occasionally notice (shock horror) Women leaving public lav's without using the washing facilities, some even stop off at the basin / mirror to reapply make up or sort their hair. You wouldn't necessarily notice one of us strange people opening the door using hand towels or tissue as its a quick and easy manouver!!


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## Cahir (30 Mar 2009)

gillarosa said:


> Thankfully haven't been in that position at the urinal with the friendly old friend, but I do occasionally notice (shock horror) Women leaving public lav's without using the washing facilities, some even stop off at the basin / mirror to reapply make up or sort their hair. You wouldn't necessarily notice one of us strange people opening the door using hand towels or tissue as its a quick and easy manouver!!



I've only not washed my hands when there was no water available but I think it's different for men and women.  We don't have to hold our ladybits when having a wee.

As for the people with OCD - could you not get a hand sanitiser to use after opening the door instead of standing there for ages breathing in the wee fumes?


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

Cahir said:


> standing there for ages breathing in the wee fumes?


 
You make it sound so cute.


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## Caveat (30 Mar 2009)

Ham Slicer said:


> Anyone want to put their unclean hand up?


 
Well I will say that a few people I know, men and women, *never* seem to wash their hands - in their own houses as well as in a public place. 

I absolutely always do BTW.


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## ophelia (30 Mar 2009)

Always scrub my hands after using public toilets and always hate touching the door handle afterwards. Because of this I carry a small bottle of hand disinfecting gel in the bag, it also comes out whenever I use particularly grotty looking ATM's or shopping trolley handles. This is the kind of thing I mean [broken link removed]


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## Chocks away (30 Mar 2009)

I believe that the Prince of Wales' gofor, as well as squeezing the toothpaste onto his brush, also holds his willie for him. However this may be just the tabloids.


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## DeeFox (30 Mar 2009)

I used to work in a restaurant and we were often amazed, and slightly disgusted, at how rarely we needed to change the soap dispensers in the toilets.  The staff soap dispenser used to be changed almost every week - and yet the same sized soap dispenser could be in the customers toilet for months.  
On an entirely unrelated note, we used to find (clean) underwear in the toilets every month or so - both men and womens in their respective toilets at varying times.  Can anyone think of a satisfactory explanation for this??!


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

DeeFox said:


> Can anyone think of a satisfactory explanation for this??!


 
Were the expectations of the patrons visiting the establishment so low that they were preparing for the worst?


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## Chocks away (30 Mar 2009)

DeeFox said:


> On an entirely unrelated note, we used to find (clean) underwear in the toilets every month or so - both men and womens in their respective toilets at varying times.  Can anyone think of a satisfactory explanation for this??!



Nothing to do with the Da Vinci Code I trust


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

Or the Da Vinci *CO*mmo*DE?*


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## Caveat (30 Mar 2009)

Chocks away said:


> I believe that the Prince of Wales' gofor, as well as squeezing the toothpaste onto his brush, also holds his willie for him. However this may be just the tabloids.


 
So are you saying he holds his tabloids *and *his willie for him?
As well as squeezing his toothpaste?

Hopefully he doesn't get any of them mixed up.


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## Ancutza (30 Mar 2009)

It often crosses my mind, too, about the toilet door handle but, as my wife pointed out recently, probably many more germs infest the paper money we use.  Do you ever pay-up for your bag of fish and chips and then go eat them without wahing your hands having handled all that skankey cash?  I know I do/did.   My missus always has some off-cuff way of unnerving me doggone it!


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## gillarosa (30 Mar 2009)

DeeFox said:


> On an entirely unrelated note, we used to find (clean) underwear in the toilets every month or so - both men and womens in their respective toilets at varying times. Can anyone think of a satisfactory explanation for this??!


 
Amazing, unless they were those control brief type underwear and as it was a Restaurant it became uncomfortable for the wearer as the meal commenced to have their tummies controlled?!


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## liaconn (30 Mar 2009)

I'm also amazed when I see people just wiggle the tips of their finger in the vague direction of the tap. If they've gone to the trouble of turning the bloody thing on, would they not wash their hands properly?


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## Lex Foutish (30 Mar 2009)

I have a friend who won't touch bowls of peanuts, crisps etc. that are left about in pubs etc. on social occasions, because of a fear of what he might ingest as a result of people there not having washed their hands after using the loo.


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## Brianne (30 Mar 2009)

You have to keep all this in perspective. Saw a programme on TV and they did a bacterial count on various things. They swabbed all sorts of objects including desks in offices and the toilets in Glastonbury. They found that the toilets were cleaner than the surfaces of the offices desks!!!
Thus I bring the bleach to work every so often and do a quiet blitz including phones which are usually filthy.Do healthy people suffer from this level of contamination? Probably not, different though when people are old and sick or both.


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## AgathaC (30 Mar 2009)

Speaking of matters hygienic, (and for the record I ALWAYS wash my hands!!) something that puzzles me is the way plastic gloves are used in food preparation. I have often seen someone preparing, for example, a sandwich, they handle all the foodstuffs, and then pick up the knife/ plate or whatever-all the while wearing the plastic gloves. In extreme cases they even operate the cash till...still wearing the gloves. So what is the purpose of the gloves??


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## Yachtie (30 Mar 2009)

I absolutely hate using public toilets, would never sit on one and hate not knowing the level of cleanlyness of the taps, soap dispenser, door handle,... I always wash my hands and turn off the taps and open the door with either a bit of toilet tissue or my elbow. But I do agree that those taps and door handles are absolutely filthy and kind of undo all the good you've done by washing your hands. 




Cahir said:


> I've only not washed my hands when there was no water available but I think it's different for men and women. We don't have to hold our ladybits when having a wee.


 
Your willy is waaaay cleaner than your hands so you are technically contaminating your man-bits by touching them.

I am a woman so this does not apply to me.   



Lex Foutish said:


> I have a friend who won't touch bowls of peanuts, crisps etc. that are left about in pubs etc. on social occasions, because of a fear of what he might ingest as a result of people there not having washed their hands after using the loo.


 
In Germany they provide little spoons for this and scooping peanuts or crisps with your hand is almost illegal in bars. I did this once and the bar tender took the bowl away, brough a new one and discreetly asked me to use the spoon. I just wasn't thinking the first time!



AgathaC said:


> Speaking of matters hygienic, (and for the record I ALWAYS wash my hands!!) something that puzzles me is the way plastic gloves are used in food preparation. I have often seen someone preparing, for example, a sandwich, they handle all the foodstuffs, and then pick up the knife/ plate or whatever-all the while wearing the plastic gloves. In extreme cases they even operate the cash till...still wearing the gloves. So what is the purpose of the gloves??


 
I have asked shop assistants to change their gloves prior to making my sandwich more than once.


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## sandrat (30 Mar 2009)

if there is no toilet paper to cover your hand with why don't your crazies just buy a pack of condoms from the condom machine and use one of them to cover you hands. Just don't tell the pope. 

I always wash my hands. Working in a library my pet hate is people queuing up to borrow books and retrieving their library card from their wallet, sticking it in their mouth while they put the wallet away and then expecting me to take the card from them. I just hold up the scanner and let them keep hold of the card. People do this in banks and video stores too


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## baldyman27 (30 Mar 2009)

sandrat said:


> if there is no toilet paper to cover your hand with why don't your crazies just buy a pack of condoms from the condom machine and use one of them to cover you hands. Just don't tell the pope.


 
But you have to press the dirty button on the dispenser first!!

Reminds me of a joke about the guy who thought that Johnny Cash was the change from a condom machine.


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## Smashbox (31 Mar 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Reminds me of a joke about the guy who thought that Johnny Cash was the change from a condom machine.


 
You mean it isnt?!


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## Caveat (31 Mar 2009)

Cahir said:


> I've only not washed my hands when there was no water available but I think it's different for men and women. *We don't* *have to hold our ladybits when having a wee.*


 
Well maybe not, and not to get too graphic, but I guess there is a much greater potential for germ transfer due to the ladies' wiping process.

As long as the men bits are clean in the first place, really it's not much different to touching your thigh or something - men don't need to get as intimate with their bits during 'wee time'.

(Sorry but I don't think there was a more polite way of saying the above!)


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## Smashbox (31 Mar 2009)

Jeez Cav... thanks for that...


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## MOB (31 Mar 2009)

Not to encourage people not to wash - but healthy urine is sterile.


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## Caveat (31 Mar 2009)

MOB said:


> Not to encourage people not to wash - but healthy urine is sterile.



...but unfortunately quite smelly when it goes stale - which is pretty quickly.  Many cultures have a history of drinking their own urine for supposed health benefits too - I think Ghandi was a devotee? Apparently, it's not completely uncommon in the west too.


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## Complainer (31 Mar 2009)

Caveat said:


> Apparently, it's not completely uncommon in the west too.


Yeah, they are fairly wild down in deepest Mayo I hear.


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## Purple (31 Mar 2009)

Caveat said:


> Well maybe not, and not to get too graphic, but I guess there is a much greater potential for germ transfer due to the ladies' wiping process.
> 
> As long as the men bits are clean in the first place, really it's not much different to touching your thigh or something - men don't need to get as intimate with their bits during 'wee time'.
> 
> (Sorry but I don't think there was a more polite way of saying the above!)



Oh yea?


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## Purple (31 Mar 2009)

Caveat said:


> Apparently, it's not completely uncommon in the west too.


 Yes, Mayo is famous for it's Uropaths.


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## Caveat (1 Apr 2009)

Purple said:


> Oh yea?


 
Good one!


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## Concert (6 Apr 2009)

I,' the same about door handles coming out of toilets, if I have sleeves I pull down over my hand and open, then that article goes straight into wash when I get home.

I'm also very aware of leaving a handbag down on public toilet floors (as people do) and then they come home and pop the bag up on their kitchen units.  I always keep the bag on my shoulder.


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## Purple (6 Apr 2009)

flahers2 said:


> I'm also very aware of leaving a handbag down on public toilet floors (as people do) and then they come home and pop the bag up on their kitchen units.  I always keep the bag on my shoulder.



I never bring my handbag out in public; Mrs Purple doesn't like it.


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## Smashbox (7 Apr 2009)

But you have such a nice collection! What do you match to your stilettos?


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## Purple (7 Apr 2009)

Smashbox said:


> But you have such a nice collection! What do you match to your stilettos?



Most things go with black.


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## Lollix (7 Apr 2009)

Lex Foutish said:


> I have a friend who won't touch bowls of peanuts, crisps etc. that are left about in pubs etc. on social occasions, because of a fear of what he might ingest as a result of people there not having washed their hands after using the loo.


I remember a survey being done a couple of years back on the issue of peanuts and snacks in bowls on pub counters in the UK. It transpired that a majority of the peanuts sampled had traces of urine on them, so your friend is right to avoid them.


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## Lollix (7 Apr 2009)

Caveat said:


> ...Many cultures have a history of drinking their own urine for supposed health benefits too - I think Ghandi was a devotee? Apparently, it's not completely uncommon in the west too.


They drink it here too, its called Dutch Gold!


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## celebtastic (16 Apr 2013)

*Even Steering wheels have nine times more germs than public toilet seats:*



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379830/How-clean-car-Steering-wheels-times-germs-public-toilet-seat.html


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