OK, so in an alleged “story” this week (i.e. it’s not proper news, but it’s probably more interesting than hearing about the bloody credit crunch again), London saw the results of the Dirty Hands Study – conducted as part of Global Handwashing Day by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. What the hell London’s got to do with “tropical”, I still haven’t figured out.
Anyway, as widely reported among the media, one of the findings of the study was that 21 percent of London women carry faecal bacteria on their hands, versus 6 percent of men. Also, commuters in Newcastle were more likely to have this bacteria on their hands than Londonians, by a factor of 44 percent to 13 percent.
I don’t know if anyone remembers a study from about 6 months ago (must have been an equally slow news week), however there was a huge public consciousness-raising expose on computer keyboard hygiene – extemporised by the Daily Mail as “HOW YOUR COMPUTER KEYBOARD IS FIVE TIMES DIRTIER THAN YOUR TOILET SEAT“.
To me, all these studies jointly conclude is that London women must be doing 3.5 as much work as men. Or spending 3.5 times as long goofing off on Facebook.
