[EZMONEY]

Originally Posted by Ufi

I do have to add that I use paper towels to touch things like door handles in public bathrooms when I'm on my way out. Some things are just too icky to risk.

ME TOO! I have seen too many people do the #2 in a public restroom then walk right on out the door!

I always use my paper towel to open the door!

[kaplods]

I love bathrooms that have no doors to open, after you wash your hands. Whether that's a maze like entrance or a swinging door you can push open with your butt or elbow. I mean there's no reason to go out of your way to expose yourself to germs, especially other people's secretions (which are a far greater disease risk than any raw meat).

I used to work in a detention center (juvenile jail) and we didn't cook for the kids, but we did serve them meals that the jail kitchen next door had cooked. People would BLOW into the plastic gloves to open them before putting them on their hands, and would wipe their noses with the glove, open the fridge door -- how often we had to remind people that the gloves were there to keep the food clean, not their hands. Coworkers would even ask me why I washed my gloved hands or went through several pairs of gloves during a meal service.

[Ookpik]

I use paper towels to open the door with too! I work in an airport, and I like the modern airports where there are no door, and the sink turns on automatically. Unfortunately, our airport isn't like that. I've been in the washroom too many times and saw too many people who not only don't flush the toilet (reminds me of "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum -- forgive me if I didn't get the title exactly right, I wasn't too sure) but also do not wash their hands. Yuck. I had the flu a few weeks ago, and strep throat a couple of weeks later, which makes me a bit more cautious, since health providers always tell us that germs are often spread via the hands.

[Ufi]

I do it because I have seen/heard people use the toilet and then walk out. I'm hardly a germophobe, but the idea of someone touching their butt and then touching something I touch is just gross. Also, while I sneeze in my elbow, I know a lot still sneeze in their hands. But to each her own.