How Dirty Are Your Hands | Earth Science

How filthy are the average persons hands and are products like Microbial Gel's, Wipes and Foams the best way to clean them?

Trust Me I'm A Doctor (Series 1, Episode 1)
Everything you ever wanted to know about colds, sleep, stress, headaches, hearts, sun-creams, exercise and much more. As well as their own knowledge and experience, our doctors will have the rigorous research that is gathered daily by the BBC's leading science journalists, to draw on.

Welcome to BBC Earth Science! Here we answer all your curious questions about science in the world around you. If there’s a question you have that we haven’t yet answered let us know in the comments!

[Lintary]

Anti bacterial soaps are not needed, just normal soap will do alongside with some common sense.

Also can we for the love of go stop hanging the towels we use to dry the dishes next to the one we use to dry our hands? (and replace both often).

[hagridmary]

As soon as I see someone not washing their hands (with soap) after going to the toilet, the amount of respect I lose for them is insane.

[MauroTamm]

This study lacked one important fact - how many were contaminated by dangerous or unhealthy bacteria/fungus.

[xXxMadKaboomxXx]

Well generally speaking the human contains about 10to the 13 cells in our bodies but also contain bacteria in and on the surface of our bodies approximately 10 to the 14 cells, which is more than our bodies cells. They coexist with us which is something normal, those bacteria lack virulence factors and are therefore non pathogenic and are called normal flora.

[thany]

And yet, we're all doing absolutely fine. So even the heavily contaminated hands aren't really that much of an issue.

[CorneliusSneedley]

This didn't really state a conclusion as to whether or not we really need antimicrobial gels and so on. Is it supposed to be obvious? Like _"Just look at what grew, of course we do!"_

If so, it is not obvious to me at all. Regular soap works just fine in killing off nasty little critters, and for the ones that slip by, this is why we have immune systems. Or at least those of us who do not obsess about sterilizing our environments do.

[TheEducatedElephant]

So do we need the anti-microbial gels or not? Do they work?
Answer your own questions please.

[opentolerance]

RIP Dr. Michael Mosley, you will be dearly missed. 😥

[chemistryofquestionablequa]

Weird that they failed to distinguish betweens bacterial and viral exposure...

[jackan]

The thing is. We know that there are bacteria on your hands and some have more than others. But it doesn't really matter, does it?

[omars]

I've heard that anti-bacterial soaps are counter productive?
And also that soap bars are less hygienic than liquid soap.

Any thoughts?

[Merriwen]

Brit lab, you failed to answer your own question - are the soaps, wipes etc the best way to clean them?

[IDuManoir]

Important question : what's the title of the music at the start of the video please ?

[robinw]

The kitchen sink may well contain 10, 000 times more germs than a toilet, but they're different types surely?

There are probably 10, 000 times more stuffed toy crocodiles than real ones, but I know which type I'd prefer to give to my kids :-D

[SeannySeannyYesPapa]

Who in the hell doesn’t wash their hands thoroughly after using the toilet? Those people are crazy

[AL_O]

how old is this? because it's not everywhere that youy find someone with an iphone 4 running ios 4...

[alimud]

Who knows what the name of song when this program end? Thanks anyway

[bruceluiz]

That Fungus one looks more like contamination - specially because of its peripheral growth.

[veemacks]

We so often hear that our immune systems aren't as strong as they should be these days, possibly because we're obsessed with trying to keep everything 100% clean. It's shows/clips like these that cause such obsessions. Disclaimer: I deliberately chose not to watch this clip, so if they concluded we should all stop being such pussies then I apologise.

[bigbenhebdomadarius]

Am I the only one to find it odd hearing a children's euphemism, "poo, " in a program intended for adults? If you can't bring yourself to use the good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon term, why not the scientific term, which is "feces"?