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Washing hands Subbotina via Shutterstock

Twenty per cent of people don't wash their hands after using public toilets

A new survey reveals men are twice as bad as women and the hospitality sector is particularly bad.

ONE FIFTH OF people don’t wash their hands after using public toilets.

A new survey to be released this week by the Food Safety Professionals Association (FSPA) shows that women are more proactive about washing their hands.

Researchers from the FSPA surveyed 630 people at 32 locations nationwide and found 127 of those did not wash their hands. 84 of those were men, 43 were women.

Hands are the number one vehicle for transmission of infections such as e-coli, salmonella, MRSA and the vomiting bug, but only 71 per cent of people attending businesses in the hospitality sector washed their hands.

88 per cent of those in healthcare businesses washed properly, while 81 per cent did so in shopping centres. 79 per cent of people in leisure and childcare facilities washed properly.

While 80 per cent of young children surveyed washed their hands, 50 per cent did not use soap and 34 per cent spent less than 10 seconds washing their hands.

The FSPA will release the survey this Friday at their National Awards Ceremony.

Read: Minister suggests ‘Florence Nightingale campaign’ to tackle hand hygiene in hospitals

Read: Patients at risk at ‘unclean’ Waterford Regional Hospital by lack of hand washing

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