Building sites in the 70’s would have bred Covid 19

Last month I came across an item in a newspaper about an event taking place on October 15^th this year. It’s Global Handwashing Day!

According to the promotional material, the Global Handwashing Day theme will focus on the links between handwashing and food, including food hygiene and nutrition. I thought honouring it with a global event was silly so, I wrote a piece about it and filed it away for October.

Then out of the blue, along came the Corona Virus. We know very little about this illness apart from the fact that it’s spreading across the Planet like wildfire. Some think that toilet paper in an antidote and supermarkets in certain places are running out because customers are stockpiling.

But the experts are now telling us that the most important weapon in our armoury against this virus is soap and water. The humble bar of soap has become our latest super-hero.

So, as handwashing is all the rage now, it seemed appropriate to bring forward my handwashing column.

Hygiene is a serious business and the people behind Global Handwashing Day, say that handwashing is an important part of keeping food safe, preventing diseases, and helping children grow strong. The tagline ‘clean hands a recipe for health’, reminds us to make handwashing a part of every meal.

That’s fair enough but I had wondered if it was necessary to make a global day of celebration out of it, but recent events have proven that these people are right. It’s never been more important to promote handwashing.

If my mother told me to wash my hands once when I was a child, she must have told me thousands of times. It was drilled into us as children and it’s one of the first instructions I can remember getting from her. It was constant and I carried on the tradition with my own kids.

Having said that, when I worked on building sites with my father in the seventies, hygiene wasn’t always front and centre. Handwashing back then consisted of a quick wipe on the overalls and that was that.

The nicest sandwiches I ever tasted were those eaten on building sites while sitting on concrete blocks with my hands covered in a mixture of cement and sand. The best tea came from a billy can, stained from years of tea making and the water was often boiled in the can using a gas blow torch.

Before the lunch break, the dirty mugs were collected on site by the young lad, probably me, from where they had been left the previous day. On windowsills, scaffolding planks or hanging on a nail. They were rubbed with sand and rinsed out in the barrel of water that was used for mixing the concrete. There was always a barrel of water on a building site.

The tea was stirred with whatever was handy. The timber ruler that was kept in a pocket on the leg of the overalls was a popular choice. It would be wiped on the overalls after and returned to the pocket. A pencil taken from behind the ear, a screwdriver or a piece of stick would do just as well.

If health enforcers existed in those days, they would have had a field day. Building sites all over the country would have been shut down and the workers put into quarantine. There was no shortage of evidence.

Safety was neglected too. The primary concern was getting the job done regardless of the risk to life and limb.

I was about fifteen when I dropped a concrete block on my foot. My big toe took most of the impact and I rested for a few minutes until the pain subsided, my vision cleared, and I ran out of swear words. You didn’t get much sympathy from fellow workers either, only abuse if you didn’t hurry back to work.

I still have trouble with that foot and there are times when it stops working and shoots pain through my body to remind me of the seventies. Punishing me for not getting medical attention.

Now, workers have boots with steel toe caps, ear protection and safety glasses and that’s all good. We didn’t have those and that’s why so many of us are limping and pestered with tinnitus today.

Anyway, back to the handwashing. Hands obviously play a big role in the transmission of germs, as we are now finding out. But our dedication to hand hygiene is a waste of time if the person we are shaking hands with is a non-believer. So, is it time to stop?

According to research from the University of California, on average we carry 3,200 bacteria from 150 different species on our hands. That means every time we shake hands we may as well be sticking them down the toilet bowl.

Yet, it’s part of our way of life. We’re a friendly bunch and it’s natural to stick out the hand to introduce ourselves, to greet each other or to offer congratulations. It’s an automatic reaction.

If someone offers their hand and you refuse to accept it, things could get awkward. Mass goers are being encouraged to offer each other the sign of peace with a nod or a smile to those around them instead. Makes sense.

I worked with military guys from Slovakia a few years ago and they were a very sociable group. They shook hands every time we met, but if their hands were dirty, they would offer their elbow. Like a fist pump only with elbows. So that might be another way to go.

Whatever we decide, I suggest that for now, we avoid the New Zealand Maori tradition of rubbing noses and foreheads together. I don’t fancy sharing nasal mucus with anyone, especially in the current climate.