{"id":130859,"date":"2025-09-26T14:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogoherbs.com\/?p=130859"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:39:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T03:39:28","slug":"blog-%e6%8f%90%e9%98%b2%e8%b6%85%e5%b8%82%e8%b3%bc%e7%89%a9%e7%9a%84%e6%84%9f%e6%9f%93%e9%a2%a8%e9%9a%aa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogoherbs.com\/en\/blog-%e6%8f%90%e9%98%b2%e8%b6%85%e5%b8%82%e8%b3%bc%e7%89%a9%e7%9a%84%e6%84%9f%e6%9f%93%e9%a2%a8%e9%9a%aa","title":{"rendered":"Hand hygiene and infection prevention in public places: How dirty are shopping carts, handrails, and door handles? Clean hands are key."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Supermarket shopping cart handles, escalator handrails, elevator buttons, door handles\u2014these objects are touched by hundreds, even thousands, of people every day, making them among the most frequently used public items in daily life. Their surfaces inevitably accumulate various microorganisms, therefore...Cleaning your hands after touching surfaces and before eating is a habit that is most worth cultivating in public places.<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, some of the suggestions circulating around this topic actually differ from official guidelines. For example, the advice that "wearing disposable gloves is an effective barrier" and "disinfect all items bought home" are practices that differ from those of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This article clarifies four points based on information from the Hong Kong Department of Health and international official sources:How dirty are public surfaces? What is the correct way to clean your hands? Which protective measures are actually unnecessary?<\/strong>as well asHygiene Focus of Shopping Bags and Food<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n

Medical Boundary Reminder:<\/strong>This article is a compilation of public health knowledge.This does not constitute a diagnosis, medication or medical advice.<\/strong>Handwashing is a daily hygiene habit. If you experience persistent diarrhea, vomiting, fever, or if you are elderly, a young child, a pregnant woman, or someone with a weakened immune system, please seek medical attention as soon as possible for evaluation by healthcare professionals.Clean hands and the environment cannot replace vaccines, medications, and medical treatment.<\/strong><\/div>\n
Table of contents<\/strong><\/div>\n
Why is hand hygiene in public places something we should take seriously?<\/a>
II. How dirty are public surfaces? Let's look at the evidence.<\/a>
III. Seven Steps to Clean Hands and Five Steps to Proper Handwashing<\/a>
IV. Several situations where hand sanitizer cannot replace hand washing<\/a>
V. Gloves are not the answer: Why it is not recommended for the public to wear gloves in supermarkets<\/a>
6. Is it necessary to disinfect groceries and their outer packaging?<\/a>
7. Separate shopping bags from raw and cooked food: the most often overlooked step<\/a>
8. Should canned drinks be washed after opening? Debunking the "rat urine" myth.<\/a>
9. In what situations should you seek medical attention as soon as possible?<\/a>
10. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)<\/a>
XI. Sources of Information<\/a><\/div>\n

Why is hand hygiene in public places something we should take seriously?<\/h2>\n

The Centre for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Department of Health describes handwashing as a "highly cost-effective hygiene measure" and points out in several educational materials:Approximately 80% of infectious diseases are transmitted because hands are not thoroughly cleaned after touching contaminated surfaces.<\/strong>At the same time, please note thatA single bacterium can rapidly multiply to 16 million within six hours.<\/strong>This is why hand hygiene in public places deserves serious attention\u2014not because any particular object is particularly scary, but because our hands are constantly transporting microorganisms between "contacting surfaces" and "touching our eyes, nose, and mouth."<\/p>\n

The benefits of proper handwashing are supported by concrete figures. According to the Hong Kong Department of Health, proper handwashing...It helps reduce diarrhea-related illnesses by about 30% and respiratory infections by about 20%.<\/strong>It can also block the spread of up to 80% of drug-resistant bacteria within hospitals. This was announced by the World Health Organization and UNICEF in October 2025.The first "Community Environmental Hand Hygiene Guidelines"<\/strong>Similar conclusions have also been cited: hand hygiene can reduce diarrhea by 301 TP4T and acute respiratory infections by 171 TP4T, making it one of the most rewarding investments in the field of public health.<\/p>\n

Remember this in one sentence:<\/strong>The first step in protecting public places is not to disinfect the environment until it is spotless, but...Wash your hands<\/strong>\u2014Because microorganisms can be carried by hands to the eyes, nose, and mouth, and also by hands to food.Washing your hands is the most direct step to cut off this route.<\/strong><\/div>\n

II. How dirty are public surfaces? Let's look at the evidence.<\/h2>\n

The claim that "public items are dirty" isn't based on intuition, but on actual measured data. Shopping carts are among the most studied public items, with studies in multiple countries detecting bacteria related to human feces or the environment on the handles and child seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Research<\/th>\nSampling objects<\/th>\nResult of the test<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
University of Arizona
Shopping cart research<\/td>\n		Handles and child seats for shopping carts in 85 parking lots across 5 major cities.<\/td>\ncoliform bacteria\u00a072%<\/strong>The bacteria were detected in 62 shopping carts; in 35 shopping carts where the bacterial strain was confirmed,18 units (51%) tested positive for E. coli.<\/strong>The total number of heterotrophic bacteria in the handle and seat reached a maximum of 1.1 \u00d7 10\u2077<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
West Texas Research
(2020)<\/td>\n		Supermarket shopping cart handles, frames, and carrying baskets<\/td>\nhandle\u00a050%<\/strong>\u00a0Staphylococcus aureus and 3% were detected; Escherichia coli O157 was also detected; the bottom of the shopping basket...\u00a096%<\/strong>\u00a0Staphylococcus aureus was detected, along with Escherichia coli O157 (17%), Salmonella (16%), and Listeria (17%).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Spanish Studies
(85 units in 7 supermarkets in 2019)<\/td>\n		Shopping cart handles and child seats<\/td>\nEscherichia coli 2.4%, Klebsiella pneumoniae 6.5%, and Citrobacter freundii 5.1% (all three can be isolated from human fecal samples); in addition,Shopping carts placed outdoors had a significantly higher percentage of coliform bacteria.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Also classified as "high-contact surfaces" are elevator handrails, elevator buttons, door handles, escalator handrails, checkout counter conveyor belts, and touch screens. The Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection's handwashing guidelines directly address these issues."After touching public objects (such as elevator handrails, elevator buttons, or door handles)"<\/strong>This is listed as one of the times when you should wash your hands.<\/p>\n

However, it's important to revisit an important scale here:The presence of bacteria on a surface does not mean that you will get sick after just one contact.<\/strong>The CDC's quantitative risk assessment indicates the risk of respiratory virus transmission via fomites.Generally less than one in ten thousand.<\/strong>The primary transmission routes for respiratory viruses remain droplets and aerosols. Conversely,The bacteria most closely related to the surface are intestinal pathogens.<\/strong>\u2014For example, norovirus, Salmonella, and Escherichia coli O157 require low infectious doses and are relatively efficient at spreading via the "hand-to-mouth" route.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the conclusion is not "don't touch it," but rather "wash your hands after touching it."<\/strong>Public surfaces do indeed have a lot of microorganisms, but what determines whether you get sick is whether you clean your hands after touching them and whether you touch your face.It's more effective to focus your energy on cleaning your hands than on wiping each item.<\/strong><\/div>\n

III. Seven Steps to Clean Hands and Five Steps to Proper Handwashing<\/h2>\n

There are two ways to clean your hands, and which one you choose depends on how visibly dirty your hands are \u2013 this is the standard practice of the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection:<\/p>\n