From cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, actress Priyanka Chopra to industrialist Anil Ambani, there is a long list of people who have gone out to clean streets in response to our PM’s call for a cleaner India. While it’s wonderful to have a neat, clean neighbourhood, we do need to stop and think whether are our homes clean enough too.
While we only see pests, mosquitoes, cockroaches and rodents ruining the hygiene of our homes, there are millions of infection-causing bacteria and viruses sharing space with us. Our kitchens and bathrooms need extra attention. Dr Prabhukumar Challagali, consultant physician, Internal medicine-diabetes, Care Hospitals, and Dr Suneetha Narreddy, infectious diseases consultant, Apollo Hospitals, tell us what we should watch out for.
KITCHEN
A report by the Hygiene Council (an international body that compares hygiene standards across the world) states, an average chopping board used in our kitchen is home to 50 times more bacteria than a toilet seat. Those sponges and dishcloths are also extremely unhygienic. This makes our kitchen a storehouse of infections! Here’s how to prevent them:
Have two CHOPPING BOARDS — one for raw meat and poultry and another for vegetables and fruit. That’s because E. coli, found in raw meat, can be transmitted to salads or fruit. And, because salads are uncooked, the bacteria won’t be destroyed. While you must replace the board after three years, dump it earlier if it has developed deep cuts as bacteria can grow inside them. On a regular basis, spray them with disinfectant, scrub and then pour boiling water over them.
WOODEN SPOONS are porous and house germs and bacteria, like E. coli from raw meat, and can cause food poisoning. Soak the spoon in a disinfectant solution for about half an hour and wash in hot, soapy water. Replace it after five years. But if the wood cracks earlier, trash it.
Bacteria multiply easily in warm and wet conditions. That’s why kitchen SPONGES AND CLOTHS are their favourite hideouts. They are not just porous, but are also moved around the whole of kitchen, thus, contaminating every surface they touch. Change them every month or use the disposable variety instead. While cleaning, squeeze them out and dip in disinfectant and rinse in hot water.
WASHROOM
While many of us cringe at the thought of using a public toilet, our personal toilet seats might not be that clean either. Just because our toilet seats look spanking neat, doesn’t mean they are 100 per cent germ-free. They can still cause cholera, typhus and diarrhoea. While microbes like E. coli can lead to bloody diarrhoea or abdominal cramps, streptococcus can cause throat infection and S. aureus are linked to serious skin problems or pneumonia.
Toilet seats are not the only surface you contact in a washroom. You could pick up infections from under the toilet seat as it is not washed as often as the seat itself, and the flush handle and other surfaces that are touched when the washroom is used. If bristles on the LOO BRUSH have gone loose or fray, it’s time to throw them away. The frayed brush would splash dirty water from the toilet bowel on to the walls in your washroom and all over the toilet seat. Replace them once in six months.
The SOAP DISPENSER in your washroom might be the most infected item in there — home to cold and flu bugs as well as faecal bacteria like E. Coli. Wash them once a week.Bacteria like S. aureus can be transferred from your skin to the BATH TOWELS. So wash them once a week at high temperature, 90 degree C. The HAIRBRUSH lying on your bathroom rack should be washed in hot, soapy water on a weekly basis. Using dirty brushes can cause blisters on your face, neck or hands.
WASH YOUR HANDS
The golden rule for personal, domestic and public hygiene is simple — wash your hands. This prevents you from carrying germs wherever you go — to the toilets, kitchen or anywhere around your home. Also with clean hands, you reduce the chances of passing on infections to those you shake hands with.
And what’s the best way to wash your hands? You must rub your hands with a lot of soap and water for at least 20 seconds, scrub the back of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. The trick is to rub vigorously, whether you are using an antiseptic solution or not. And, if there’s no water, rub in a drop of hand sanitiser. And remember to not use your bare hands to turn off the faucet, especially if you are headed for a meal.
