Observation of everyday hand-washing behavior of Japanese, and effects of antibacterial soap

People wash their hands only for a short time outside the home and when pre paring meals at home. This may not be sufficient for those who prepare meal s because of possible secondary contamination from food. Although washing w ith a placebo soap for a short period (lathering 3 s and rinsing 8 s) clean sed from hands about 95% of the total coliforms transferred from ground mea t, an antibacterial soap further reduced the coliform count significantly ( p < 0.01). To effectively avoid secondary contamination, it is recommended that people should more frequently wash their hands, using an antibacterial soap on the areas that have been in contact with raw meat, poultry, seafoo d, eggs, vegetables and other foods. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.