Washing your hands is an action deemed as common sense when maintaining health. Everyone needs to wash their hands. It kills bacteria and helps control the spread of disease. Ever since we were children our parents always told us to wash our hands before dinner and after using the bathroom. Most of us were also told to always use hot or warm water, never cold. For some reason, it makes sense in our minds to use hot water. The temperature of hot water that a person can withstand on a comfortable level kills bacteria, right? Not exactly.
According to a report in the "Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine," scientists conducted a study whether different temperatures of water had any effect on ridding a person's hands of harmful bacteria. Subjects had their hands dirtied and were told to wash their hands for 25 seconds. People were then instructed to wash their hands in different temperatures ranging from 40 degree Fahrenheit to 120 degrees. Scientists did not find that any temperature of water that a person can withstand at a comfortable level to kill bacteria. In fact, they found that some soaps react badly with hot water and may even cause contact dermatitis (when your skin becomes inflamed due to direct contact with an irritating substance).
But, are there any benefits to washing your hands with warm or hot water? According to the Food and Drug Administration, a comfortable level of hot water can remove oils from the hand that can contain bacteria. However, the temperature of hot water that we can stand is not hot enough to really kill bacteria.
So, what is the best advice for hand washing? Use soap and a temperature of water that is comfortable, for most it is in the "warm" range. The use of hot water has not been proven to be better in killing bacteria than cold water in hand washing.
All my information came from "The Claim: Always Wash Your Hands With Hot Water, Not Cold" written by Anahad O'Connor from the New York Times.
I thought this article was very interesting with the flu going on, hand sanitizer everywhere, and with constant signs suggesting people to wash their hands with warm water. Every time I wash my hands I make sure I wash them with warm water because it is what is suggetsed, now I feel silly for listening to all those signs that have lied to me.
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