UK Hand Hygiene Study: $4 Billion Cost

An independent survey amongst office workers has shown that the major cause of absence from work is colds and ‘flu and a major contributor to the spread of the infection at work is poor hand hygiene. But to date, the hand drying element is rarely referred to. Indeed the survey showed that whilst 87% of office employees thought hand washing was effective at controlling the spread of infection, only 13% thought hand drying had any contribution to make.

However, the latest study on effective hand hygiene carried out by Bradford University confirms the truth of the widely accepted view that hand washing is a hugely important infection control measure, a view also held by the Health Protection Agency and the NHS Infection Control Team. This latest survey, commissioned by Connect Hygiene Products, showed that 93% of employees thought that too. However, the Bradford study goes on to state that hand drying is vitally important in preventing post wash translocation of bacteria from the hand’s surface to the next hard surface it touches.