Handwashing – is it effective? ABSOLUTELY!

At Ecowize, we understand the importance and implementation of good hygiene and sanitation, specifically when it comes to handwashing. Although every day is handwashing day for us, we utilise Global Handwashing Day, 15 October, as an opportunity to spread extra awareness and understanding on the value of washing our hands.

Sicknesses and diseases spread rapidly in South Africa, because of the lack in understanding of the value in good hygiene. Every surface that we touch contaminates our hands, so long until they are cleansed with soap. Though we have antibodies that can fight off foreign substances such as bacteria, we still need to be extremely cautious because our bodies can only do so much. To prevent these diseases from spreading is to simply wash our hands.

We dedicated this day to doing extensive handwashing-and-sanitation trials with swabs to see the efficiency and effectiveness of washing and sanitizing our hands. We proudly made use of two Ecowize products, HW10 and HS70 to conduct the trial. We do also offer an array of alternative product to cover effective hand hygiene.

In our study, we recruited working staff within the facility, from the production lines, swabbed their hands BEFORE washing, and then again AFTER washing and sanitizing, returning them back to the production floor. We did so to see the effectiveness of following the Ecowize Hand Wash Procedure, and to see the efficiency of the HW10 combined with HS70 for cleaning and sanitizing.
The outcome of our experiment was absolutely astounding! To better understand the results, let us break it down for you.
Imagine the size of a matchbox; this is roughly how big of an area is swabbed when conducting a hygiene survey (swab) on your hand. And on a swab, we found an average of more than 600 counts of active bacteria living on a small area on the hands of the staff who formed part of the trial! Can you imagine 600 colonies of bacteria living on one small space of your hand?! BUT after washing and sanitizing that number of bacteria dropped to ZERO.

The cleaning and decontamination of your hands within a minute when washing and sanitizing correctly, is indeed EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE! Through our experiment, we truly hope that you now understand why it is extremely important to keep washing and sanitizing your hands – as a general practice, not only in your workplace, food space, but also at home!
KEEP SAFE – HERE’S TO A CLEAN & HEALTHY MZANSI.
By Fanie Koelman, New Business & Technical Consultant at Ecowize

What about Explore more industry-related articles: