- Image by joelogon via Flickr
It’s cold and flu season so we all should know by now that washing your hands helps prevent the spread of disease, but my Google reader brought up an article in the BBC titled Shame ‘boosts hand –washing rate’ that was really wild.
A London university used sensors to monitor reactions to hygiene messages displayed to people using service station toilets. I had to laugh at this. In my head, I had an image of Hal from 2001 a Space Odyssey scolding people who didn’t wash up properly after using the facilities or a flashing red light and siren going off when someone stepped out the door without washing his or her hands.
I wasn’t too far off. There weren’t any talking robots or sirens, but there were messages on LED signs near the entrance to the bathrooms with mottos like “Water doesn’t kill germs; soap does,” and “Don’t be a dirty soap dodger,” etc…
Around 250,000 people were studied using online sensors to compare use of the toilets and the soap dispensers. The results are kind of disturbing. There’s definitely a difference between the sexes. Only 32 percent of the men washed their hands after using the facilities, compared to 64 percent women. It kind of makes me want the siren or the robot.
The message that made the most impact with participants was the message stating, “Is the person next to you washing with soap?” This caused an increase of 11 percent in women and 12 percent in men. I guess a little peer pressure can be useful at times. According to the to the London School’s hygiene centre, washing your hands with soap could prevent nearly 1 million needless deaths a year from common preventable diseases.
Don’t make us break out the killer robots and sirens people.
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