Did you know that you could have up to 25 times more germs on your hands after you’ve washed them with soap?
So you’ve been to the toilet and you’ve washed your hands with soap. Just like our mum’s told us. Your hands are pretty clean now, right? Well, maybe not. Maybe your hands are more infected now than they were when you started.
Yep, that’s right. They can be deadly. How is that even possible? Well, one out of every 4 refillable bulk soap dispensers is contaminated with unsafe levels of bacteria. Sounds crazy right? Well, here’s the science to back it up.
When refilling bulk refillable soap dispensers are exposed to airborne faecal matter, yep, that’s literally poo, wee, sweat and saliva floating through the air, so when someone refills a soap dispenser these tiny nasties go into the soap...and fester. And then they go on your hands. Aaaand then you touch your face….and now I feel a bit sick just talking about it.
It only takes the tiniest of droplets to start the viral growth cycle inside the soap tank making these dispensers more contaminated and dangerous.
Even the World Health Organisation has officially recognised the contamination risk of refilling or topping up bulk refillable hand soap dispensers.
So what are we supposed to do… not wash our hands?
At XO2 we’re saying there’s a better way… touch-free hand soap dispensers and hygienically sealed refill pods.
Our pods are hygienically sealed to keep the germs out. No messy refilling here!
They’re easy, clean and the dispenser batteries last up to 2 years!
But wait! This sounds expensive right?
Nope! Our touch-free dispensers control soap usage.
Compared to a traditional soap pump or two or three, (can you just stop?!) our touch-free dispensers will save up to 85% on soap usage. Labour costs are also down, with it taking less than 6 seconds to change a refill pod, compare that to the requirement of cleaning, disinfecting and drying your bulk soap dispensers every time you refill them.
So stop the spread. Replace your dispensers. Go touch-free.
Check out XO2's range of hand soap products here.
References
1. Zapka C, Campbell E, Maxwell S, Gerba C, Dolan M, Arbogast J, Macinga D. 2011. Bacterial hand contamination and transfer after use of contaminated bulk-soap-refillable dispensers. Appl Environ Microbiol. 77(9):2898-2904. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/aem.02632-10 & https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3126420/
2. Chattman M, Maxwell S, Gerba C. 2011. Occurrence of heterotrophic and coliform bacteria in liquid hand soaps from bulk refillable dispensers in public facilities. J Environ Health. 73(7):26-29.
3. World Health Organization (2009) WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care: a Summary. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/70126/WHO_IER_PSP_2009.07_eng.pdf;sequence=1
4. Australian Government. Staying Healthy - Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services (4th Edition 2005). https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/staying-healthy-preventing-infectious-diseases-early-childhood-education-and-care-services