I declare am a bit of a germaphobe
but......
Having just been into McDonalds for a pre Christmas Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin
I have to say I am amazed at the lack of thought that has gone into hygiene of the self order touch screens
Whilst I was there people were coughing, spluttering and sneezing directly onto the screens and their hands whilst ordering and one lad waltz in warming his hands down the front of his pants before using the screen, horrid.
is it me ?
Our GP's surgery also has a checking in system that is touch screen and I find it hard to understand how getting sick people with god knows what are using the same screens potentially cross contaminating whatever it is they have come in with.
am I turning into Howard Hughes ?
Another good reason if one was needed not to,,
n2
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
"You gotta know when to hold em and know when to fold em".
You're worried about germs on a McDonald's touch screen ordering system, but happy to chow down on a Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin? LMAO
The point is quite valid, but unfortunately those same hands have already probably used the door handle on the way in, and that’s even before you think about the bathroom surfaces, or the staff.
Sometimes, for sanity of self I think it’s better to just enjoy the sausage without thinking too deeply about how it was made...
Hang on? You eat in McDonalds but are worried about the germs on the ordering screen? Have you looked at some of the staff!
Just kidding I agree with you but if you worry about the screen you need to worry about the door handle, table, seat, cup. What about Starbucks when they push the plastic lid on your coffee? Then there’s knives and forks in restaurants, the list is endless.
I’m one of those people who avoid touching handles and the like in public places, elbows work in most places, I said exactly the same thing when I got dragged into one of these new McDonalds. They are also just a way of shedding staff, the actual total wait is longer and the whole process even more impersonal. All good reasons to avoid the place.
By far the worst thing has to be hand rails on escalators
Last edited by adrianw; 23rd December 2018 at 12:46.
Touchscreens are bound to be covered in bacteria, it’s obvious when you think about it. Same applies to remote controls for TVs etc. Having ‘communal ‘ touchscreens clearly elevates the problem to a new level and I would be reluctant to use one in a restaurant or McDonalds.
Same applies to door handles and handrails etc, harmful bacteria gets spread around but many people don’t think about it or simply aren’t aware. I’m not obsessive about hand hygiene but I always wash hands prior to eating, its what I had drilled into me as a kid. Working in a chemical environment reinforced this too.
Years ago we had public information ads on TV telling us all to do this. It’s easy to assume everyone understands how bacteria and viruses are spread thesedays, I suspect the opposite is true and many people don’t.
'Ignorance is bliss'
Not thought of the order screen before but I did feel a bit quizzy watching the kids eating there food whilst touching the gaming tablets with there snotty greasy fingers.
Regards door handles I always try to just pull at the very top of the handle especially when exiting the toilets using a one finger method.
You are ingesting pee , poo , vomit , skin , blood , spit , snot from other people and animals constantly.
Your system is perfectly capable of dealing with it as long as you don’t overload it. Bacterial load is the thing.
I doubt that the surface of the screens is particularly hospitable to microbiological life compared with anything else you might touch whilst out and about.
I’m more concerned about the fact more than half the men I’ve seen walking out the bathroom obviously never bothered to wash their hands.
Has the OP never used an ATM?
Double-whammy of filthy screen/buttons, followed by dirty bank-notes. Lovely!
______
Jim.
Do any of you ever handle money both coins and notes by chance?
I occasionally use these but always wash my hands immediately after whilst I’m waiting.
As others have pointed out, the door handles etc. are as likely to be contaminated as the screens, so on the way out of the toilet I always use my right hand for the doors and keep my left hand clean for eating.
I’ve done this for years before eating in hospitals and have largely avoided the traditional winter bout of D&V that seems to do the rounds in norovirus season.
What a minefield.
It's inescapable.
No wonder we are all dead.
General public hygiene is truly appalling, the only way is to clean your hands and wash/change clothes as often as possible. I usually carry a few of these specs wipes - they are individually packed and great for cleaning hands as they contain alcohol - https://www.boots.com/boots-lens-wipes-20s-10174166
Fas est ab hoste doceri
seems i have some fellow germaphobes haha
a scary read
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/lat...u-burger-fries
I agree I am paranoid I open doors with my elbows and push flush down with a piece of paper in public places 'airports' etc and don't get me started on Motorway services.
probably more illogical for me is the use of screens in Dr's Surgery for patients to check in upon arrival imagine somebody with flu coming in checking in then being followed by a geriatric in for a flu jab or worse a kid with Chicken Pox followed by somebody who's never had it or a random teen with an sti !!
ah well sod it got to die of something I just hope its nothing itchy.
You should try travelling on the London Underground at rush hour, loads of people wiping their runny noses on the backs of their hands then holding the rails and generally touching everything they can.
I always made it a point to have clean tissues in me left pocket which I’d use to wipe my hands and then put them into my right pocket for disposal later. I also carried hand sanitizers with me, used to get strange looks years ago but it’s pretty much accepted these days.
I grew up in the 60s, my parents had both served in WW2 (dad in the Navy, mum as a nurse), and both were sticklers for hand-washing hygiene. I don’t know whether they were the exception; they’d both been in some very unhygienic situations in the war and I’d expect them to be less rigorous because of this, but they were both the exact opposite! I also remember the wds on TV telling us to wash our hands.
Are we generally less concerned/aware of hygiene issues thesedays?.........I suspect so. Parents in the 60s were very conscious of diseases such as TB, polio, scarlet fever and other such nasties that have been virtually eradicated thesedays, maybe this influenced them?
It was the same at junior school, we were all made to wash our hands often..........but I admit I went to a strange junior school!
I think if I ever ate at Mcdonalds or similar food outlets the last thing I would worry about was hygiene
Another one here.
Public toilets are a nitemare for me. I try not to touch any thing unless covered by sleeve or tissue. Carrying anti-septic wipes is useful.
What peeves me is people using the toilets and then leaving without washing their hands.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Basic hygiene and common sense aside,if people in general didn't worry so much about disinfecting everything and just got on with it everyone would have a lot more resistance to everything.
At our local surgeries there is antiseptic alcohol gel in reception so you can at least clean your hands after using the touch screen, if it's working that is.
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I have the same thoughts about ATMs, toilet doors that pull only, toilet flushers...the list is endless if you think about it...
We've been exposed to these things on a daily basis, for our entire lives.
Sensible handwashing, and crack on. It's a first world problem that really isn't worth the worry.
get where you are coming from will just avoid.
but in this age of touch screen meets food industry where hundreds of varied adults and kids are encouraged to use the same screen every day before putting hands on the food there about to eat I just think its all a bit problematic.
and it differs from ATM's in that you don't eat the cash.
Any alien coming to earth would be dead either from germs or from Mc Donalds
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I would’ve agreed 10 years ago, but we’re reaching a situation where the so-called superbugs are resistant to the antibiotics we’ve relied upon for years. I don’t know whether the trend towards touchscreens increases the infection risk significantly, but it certainly can’t help. The winter sickness bugs seem to strike every year thesedays, and these viruses are v. contageous.
As with all things, assesing the risk is difficult without information. The press love to blow these things out of proportion; modern analytical techniques allow very small concentrations to be measured, so a tiny amount of faecal bacteria gets reported as if it’s a piece of shit!
The idea of having antibacterial hand-wiping on entry to eating places is a good one, maybe McDonalds should consider it? It’s commonplace on cruise ships and some hotels, perhaps it needs to be more widely adopted.
Don`t ever go on an all-inclusive holiday....
Dinner times are a total nightmare scenario for germophobes - the ladles, tongues, and other assorted cutlery you use to pick the food and place it on your plate could of been picked up and put down by hundreds of hands before you, and you can only imagine where those hands could of been and what they were doing just prior to the restaurant...
Isn't that a man made problem? By over treatment we've allowed these resistant bugs to proliferate. So if we go nuts with the alcogel etc, are we going to eliminate the common bugs and allow the mutations to proliferate making the issue worse?
Cruise ships are completely irrelevant. It's a closed environment, so a small bug can spread like wildfire. The normal world we live in isn't like that.
I'm assuming none of you lot have ever had oral sex..?
Just sayin'...
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Well if you are, I beat you to it!
A couple of years ago I complained when Sainsburys had put someone on a till who had the most disgusting chesty cough. She shouldn't have been at work (probably forced in!) but certainly not in a "customer facing" position. Had to spray all my shopping with disinfectant spray when I got home.
No question that poor basic hygiene is the norm.
How did we cope before wet wipes?
Build up your immune system. All these antibiotics these days is making people weaker.
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