Washing our hands of Common sense? Our culture’s focus on treating symptoms overlooks how many germs get around: our hands. Frequent hand washing help stop the spread of bacteria, pathogens, viruses, food-borne illness and more. Over one-third of the population is high risk, including the elderly, young children, pregnant and
those with compromised immune systems. Poor hand washing habits kill thousands of people each from food-borne illnesses alone. But, is today heavily marketed anti-bacterial craze going a bit too far? In fact there are signs that it is making some of us sick. Immune system disorders are on the rise, and, anti-bacterial products are raising the worry that fast moving bacteria will evolve to survive them, making “super bacteria” even harder to kill.
So what do you do? Use common sense. Instead of concentrating on killing every germ in sight, or not in sight, concentrate on keeping your hands clean of the other substances such as saliva, mucous, residues and the
like, which transport them. Keep your hands out of your mouth and eyes, which are the most common routes of infection. And remember that there is such a thing as too much cleanliness, especially when it replaces common sense. | 
