Rule of thumb in handwashing

Clean, little hands are good to see! This we learned all too well in kindergarten. But as we grew up, we seemed to have forgotten this little lesson. How many of us forget to wash our hands after using the toilet? Guilty as charged? Positioning themselves in hospital bathrooms and restaurant rest rooms, members of a research team were shocked to discover that even doctors, nurses, and health care workers did not wash their hands between seeing patients while food service workers did not wash their hands after using the toilet. Disgusting, isn’t it?

Of course, since the SARS outbreak, most of us have become a little more conscious about personal hygiene. Now, we see more people in public toilets taking the bother to wash their hands with soap and water. Or plain water if there’s no soap; or if there’s no water, alcogel (now practically a must-have) provides a ready substitute. We heard that the quickest item to disappear from the shelves of Bench stores these days is the alcogel.

Among the first victims of SARS were food handlers. They certainly could have used some handy tips from Carol Turkington’s book on how to protect yourself from contaminated food and drink. The book says that rule no. 1 (and the most vital rule) in safe food handling is to wash your hands. Scrubbing with good old soap and water has been found to kill about 96 percent of all the viruses and bacteria that thrive on the skin. Handwashing sounds simple enough but there’s a neat trick to it, according to Turkington. "You should rub your hands briskly for 30 seconds (just count to 30) in moderately warm water. The rubbing is more important than the type of soap you use (mild soap is fine)."

When handling food, wash your hands at least 20 seconds before beginning food preparation, and after handling anything raw, using the bathroom, touching animals, changing diapers, or blowing your nose.

When touching raw stuff, take extra care if you’re wearing a ring (or rings) or if you have fake nails. Soap alone is not enough to get under those long fake nails. To clean, use a nail file or a toothpick to get to the hard-to-reach dirt.

In handwashing, rinsing and drying are very vital in keeping bacteria and viruses away. The book points out that the friction of the towel (especially paper towel) when drying your hands helps remove bacteria and viruses.

Wash the utensils (like the chopping board) you will use for cooking in hot soapy water.

If you’re washing the dishes by hand, remember to do it within two hours after putting them in the dishwater. "Letting dirty dishes sit in water for a long time creates a bacterial soup, so the contaminants multiply. It’s also best to air-dry them."

More handy tips from Turkington:

• Clean kitchen surfaces. As soon as you finish any stage of cooking, wash your hands and the counters, equipment, utensils, and cutting boards with soap and water. Don’t be shocked now, but probably the "germiest" place in the house is the kitchen.

• Use sanitizers if hot water and soap aren’t enough. The best sanitizers are bleach and commercial kitchen cleaning agents (if you can, choose the most environmentally friendly one).

• Sanitize your surfaces. At least once a week, sanitize your sink, counters, utensils, and cutting boards with a chlorine solution of two teaspoonfuls of bleach in one quart of water. Let the solution stand before rinsing off . Remember to follow the label when using bleach.

• Discard week-old sponges and dishcloths. It’s horrrifying to note that you’ll find more fecal bacteria in your kitchen sponge than on the rim of your toilet. Perpetually moist surfaces (like sponges) provide an ideal place for bacteria to breed. Never allow sponges and cloths to sit in water as this encourages bacterial growth. Discard sponges after one week; use a clean one each day and put the dirty ones in the hot wash. If you don’t have a dishwasher, put them in a diluted bleach solution.

• Wash plastic or wooden boards in hot, soapy water. You can scrub germs from both plastic and wooden boards, but not from boards with deeply scarred surfaces.

But if you’re not preparing food at home and would rather eat out, it’s best to avoid places whose hygiene leaves a lot to be desired. Or those that probably use dubious ingredients in their food. When we were in high school ages ago, there was a very popular restaurant that reputedly served a different kind of siopao. Somehow, it tasted different from the siopao served in other Chinese restos. Everybody was curious to find out what the siopao’s secret recipe was. Somehow, the cat got out of the bag and people found out that this special siopao uses, yes, cat meat (the SARS virus has been traced to civet cats which are a delicacy in China). No wonder we would see cats running all over the place! Fact is, this resto is still alive and meowing!

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Paging Fr. Carlo Magno Ilagan!

This snail mail found its way into our pigeonhole:

I read your article dated May 25 regarding Our Virgin of Caysasay. I would like to inquire where we can have the estampita of Our Lady of Caysasay, her prayers, and the water. Where is the Basilica of Taal and the chapel of Labac located?

Truly yours,

Linda Tan

Our Lady of Caysasay left Manila last May 31and is now back home in Batangas. The original image, which dates back to 1603, divides her time between the Basilica of Taal and her shrine in Labac, a barrio in Taal, Batangas, some three hours by car from Manila.

Estampitas of Our Lady of Caysasay, her prayers, and healing water from the well are given free. Inquire from Fr. Carlo Magno Ilagan, parish priest of Labac, at cell phone no. (0917)5045216 or Marietta Goco/Sally Gonzalez of the Blessed Virgin of Caysasay Foundation, Inc. at 550-0145/573-6160, telefax 831-3445.