Human hands are dirtier than public places. It is best to wash your hands every 4 hours.

A new study has found that human hands are dirtier than public places. The germs on your hands are more harmful to your health than park benches and public elevator handrails. But even so, only 1 out of 8 people washed their hands before eating.

Whether it's a park bench or a public elevator handrail, the number of bacteria in these places is far less than the number of bacteria carried by your hands. This means that it's our hands that are the culprit that makes us sick, not those dirty-looking cafes and restaurants. The lab collected 25 samples from tables, chairs, handrails and children's toys and found that these seemingly stained items actually contained low levels of Staphylococcus and E. coli, both of which can be deadly. These public items contained very few bacteria, with the bench with the most bacteria containing only 33,000 bacteria. The number of bacteria on a normal person's hands reaches 10 million, and the number of bacteria on a kitchen sponge is tens of millions. At the same time, another study showed that 92% of people would deliberately avoid dirty tables and chairs, saying it was for health reasons, but ironically, less than 13% of people washed their hands before eating.

Two years ago, a British study showed that 26% of people have fecal bacteria on their hands, and the United Nations estimated that simply washing hands before eating could save millions of lives from diarrheal and respiratory infections. "This situation shows that if people deliberately avoid common sense, they will cause harm to their bodies." Paula Leff, founder of the Water Organization, said: "Hands often touch our mouths, we eat through our hands, which also makes hands a source of disease." Another study showed that a quarter of people carry a large number of germs after going out for lunch. After a party, the hands, handbags, mobile phones, etc. of 300 people were used as specimens. Among these 234 people, 56 had a large number of bacteria on their hands, which could easily cause cross infection.

The dirtiest hands contained four times more bacteria, and experts say washing hands with soap can reduce the bacterial content. Experts recommend washing your hands for 30 seconds, but most people only wash their hands for 15 seconds. A quarter of respondents admitted they never washed their hands after blowing their nose, while 27% said they never washed their hands after using public transport. Experts recommend that people should wash their hands every four hours.