Dirty hands
Book 2,
Number 0519:
Anas b. Malik
reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him)
went to a far-off place in the desert (hidden from the sight of human beings)
for relieving himself. Then I brought water for him and he cleansed himself
Dirty hands
'poison thousands'
Almost a third of men and many women do not wash their hands after going to the
toilet vastly increasing the risk of food poisoning, says a survey.
Many are
transferring germs straight from toilet to plate because they also do not wash
their hands before preparing food.
To launch
National Food Safety Week on Monday, the Food and Drink Federation stressed that
even healthy guts can contain potentially harmful bacteria.
They
illustrated the danger by releasing pictures which revealed just how many bugs
are carried by unwashed hands.
People were
asked to make a impression on special agar jelly with an unwashed hand.
When
ultraviolet light was used to compare the amount of bacteria growing within the
handprint with those from a washed hand, the difference was visibly dramatic.
Estimates
suggest as many as 4.5 million people suffered from food poisoning in the UK
last year - although fewer than 100,000 cases were reported to the authorities.
The main
culprits were salmonella, campylobacter and E.coli.
A quarter of
men
The survey of
more than 2,000 people found that a quarter of men, and 17% of women did not
always wash their hands before preparing food.
It found 31% of
men and 17% of women confessed to not washing hands after going to the toilet -
many of these believed the toilet was clean, or that they were only coming into
contact with their family's germs.
One in five
said they did not bother because their hands looked clean.
Professor John
Krebs, chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said: "Handling food with dirty
hands is asking for trouble. Food poisoning is still a big problem in the UK and
the simple step of washing our hands will help reduce risks and clean up our
act."
Other findings
of the survey were disturbing - for example, only 37% of people knew the correct
working temperature of a fridge.
Forty-two per
cent did not always wash their hands after playing with pets, and more than half
did not wash before eating food.
Professor Hugh
Pennington, a microbiology expert from the University of Aberdeen, said: "There
will be those who accuse us of being patronising by focusing on something as
basic as hand washing.
"I say to them:
'The next time you meet someone and shake their hand - there's a one in five
chance that they are one of those who do not always wash their hands after going
to the toilet'."
Comment :
This is islam
instructions 1400 years ago