Most of us have been told our whole lives that it’s very rude and unsanitary to cough or sneeze without covering one’s mouth, presumably with one’s hands. After all, coughing and especially sneezing are great ways to share your germs with others. Few actions work better than sneezing for aerosoling and projecting your own saliva.

But one thing which has gone unmentioned in the past is how big a roll one’s hands play in spreading of disease. Once you sneeze into your hands, you’ve just contaminated the one part of your body which is most likely to touch common surfaces and others. Even if you don’t shake hands or hold hands, simply handing common objects or touching surfaces can spread infection to others. It’s easy to forget just how many things one touches in a day.

So what’s a cold or allergy sufferer to do? Sneeze into the air? Or go running to the restroom to scrub up after each sneeze? You could carry tissues around, but that’s not always going to entirely prevent your hands from getting contaminated, and they might not always be there.

A better plan of action: Turn your head away from others and sneeze downward, if necessary, using your upper arm, shoulder or elbow to block that nasty spray. And just the same, if you’re under the weather, wash your hands!

More info here

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Education, Good Science, Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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