Originally Posted by
Machka
If I spent my day out in the country (and I've lived out in the country), I wouldn't worry so much about the hand washing ... there's nothing wrong with good wholesome dirt

Handwashing is more for city life. So many hands touching door knobs, railings, etc. ... so many people sneezing and coughing everywhere ...
I also end up riding in rainy or recently rained on conditions a lot ... it seems to rain wherever I go ... so everything, including my hands and face tend to collect a layer of street grime. I'd rather remove that before eating.
See, I'm weird that way, I don't worry about door knobs, railings, etc and rarely wash my hands even during the cold and flu season after touching such stuff. I also don't wipe things down with sanitizing cloths. Since I don't work typically in a place where my hands get dirty from dirt or grease my hands don't get dirty all day so I don't wash them at all except after going to the toilet. And I don't get sick, and I live in the city. I think people need to build up their immune system by washing less and not using anti bacteria soaps thus exposing themselves to these various germs which will eventually build up their immunity against them. Granted if you have some sort of illness and/or a compromised immune system that could cause serious consequences if you don't protect yourself from germs that's a different story, but for the normal person I think we're going way overboard, and it may be why we're encountering super bugs. But that's just my opinion.
What most people don't realize is there are good and bad bugs, the good bugs do warfare against the bad bugs, if you sanitize your hands you kill both bugs, problem is, bad bugs duplicate far faster then good bugs, so now you left yourself with an army of bad bugs as the anti bacteria soap wears out and very few good bugs to defeat them.