It's Global Handwashing Day and You Are Filthy

Well, it is. That one magical day every fall when Hand Santa-tizer (SORRY) plops down the chimney and fills all the dirty children’s socks with Purell. Make sure you leave some urinal cakes out for him to snack on! Then go scrub your filth.

Global Handwashing Day—which, apparently, occurs every October 15th—is an initiative of the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPPHW), “a coalition of international stakeholders whose focus is handwashing and child health.” The PPPHW’s stated goals are to improve health and prevent diarrhea and communicable infections in developing countries by promoting proper handwashing. But, of course, there’s no reason why the rest of the globe can’t join in too. After all, we are fucking disgusting.

A new study out of the Queen Mary College and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that literally everything you own is covered in feces. More specifically, that 26% of Londoners surveyed had fecal bacteria on their hands.

Via Geekosystem:

The worst news is that 11% of hands, 8% of credit and debit cards, and 6% of currency was contaminated with levels of bacteria that you would expect to find in a dirty toilet.

11% of hands. With the same bacterial content as a dirty toilet. 11% of hands touching the same money you spend, the same doorknobs you turn, and the same produce you peruse in the grocery store.

…The study also found that only 39% of respondents reported washing their hands before sitting down to a meal.

Oh, people. Come on! It’s like Gandhi said—”Be the change you want to see in the world [when it comes to not having poop all over your hands].” Global Handwashing Day doesn’t happen every day, so make it count. Then don’t worry about it for an entire year. (I’M JK-ING, GARBAGE PAIL KIDS.)

Happy Global Handwashing Day! Everything You Own Is Covered In Fecal Bacteria [Geekosystem]