Few activities come close to hand washing for preventing the spread of diseases and fatal habits. By the time we reach our twenties our experience with public rest rooms teaches us three facts: One, some people wash their hands after using the toilet. Two, some people do not wash their hands after using the toilet. Three, some people pretend to wash their hands after using the toilet.

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The Men's Room

I prefer to use the men's room at the Flying J truck stops when on the road. The Flying J tends to make an effort at cleanliness and odor control. A simple clean fragrance from a recently cleaned urinal contrasts sharply with the sharp, nasty uric acid odor I come to expect in poorly kept gas stations.

The Flying J's populatity with truck drivers and I grows from its efforts to keep rest rooms clean and odor free. The Flying J still needs to learn that rest rooms designed without doors while keeping user's privacy ventillates more than enough. This doorless restroom improvement improves more than those terrible odors we find in public restrooms.

Poor hand washing behavior shows why ommiting doors from public and commercial rest rooms would benefit public hygiene. Whether in the Flying J, Home Depot, IHOP, DMV, or other public buildings, I find the same problems with door knobs and poor personal hygiene among visitors to the men's rest room.

Both boys and men enter public rest rooms, do their business, and then walk out. Getting out means that without the doorless restroom and at least a swinging door, these offenders of publie hygiene soile the door's knob with urine and fecal matter. (See my comment on biowaste and fecal mater at The Essence of Crime Scene Cleanup)

Even without trying I witness men and boys using the rest room and walking out without washing their hands. I then must confront the doorknob these culprits placed their soiled hands on.