Public bathrooms creep me out. You take care of bidness, wash your hands and then have to touch the door handle that everyone that hasn’t washed their hands have touched. Bummer.

Use the paper towel you dried your hands on to open the door, then trash it.

If they have a blow dryer in the bathroom you are fooked.

Usually.  Many times when I have been working with my hands I have to wash before I take a leak.  

I know where my hands and my d_ck have been. I use a paper towel to open the door, or pull my long sleeve over my hand and do it "homie-style" as if I was using my sweatshirt to conceal my fingerprints.

Quoted: Use the paper towel you dried your hands on to open the door, then trash it. If they have a blow dryer in the bathroom you are fooked.

This.

I can't understand why bathrooms with interior opening doors get equipped with blow dryers. Morons.

People are some sick fuckers. I hate using a public bathroom. Especially reststops.
I wash after and use the towel to open the door.

Quoted: Usually.  Many times when I have been working with my hands I have to wash before I take a leak.

+1

I got an odd reaction from a coworker once for doing this. Seemed like the obvious correct coarse of action for me. (I had been soldering (sp?).)

actually in a public place I wash my Dick Scratchers Before an Afterwards my Block and Tackle is near and Dear to me

Take care your Cock and use a Condom with your Randy way,,

as for the Muffin Ovens,,,,sheesh

I avoid pissing on my hands.  Get over it.

I do wash after.  

If you think about it though you should probably be washing before more than after.  My hands and my junk start the day off clean after my morning shower.  As the day progresses my hands are picking up dirt/germs from keyboards, door knobs, steering wheel, people and everything else.  So now I go to use the bathroom and spread all this to my still clean junk tucked away in my clean drawers.  People have this strange fascination that male genitalia is dirty by definition?

Quoted: Use the paper towel you dried your hands on to open the door, then trash it.

+1

I do this all the time!

You germophobes do realize that there's bacteria everywhere, right?

Why is this single answer poll question a multi answer poll?

Why?


In answer to the poll. Yes. Always.

Wash 'em every time. I make it a ppoint to remind my kids in public, loudly admonishing them to not be filthy vemin like those who don't wash their dickskinners.

I point out those cave dwellers who chomp with their mouth full of food as well.

I read something interesting about this actually - architects are starting to design more bathrooms to have the 'maze' style entrance (like you see in stadiums and airports) so that people don't have to touch doors. Pretty neat stuff. I for one can't wait until I get my own motion-sensor toilet (and sinks) in my house. Proably won't be till another 20-50 years though

Oh, and I ALWAYS wash my hands AND I always FLUSH THE TOILET. What is it with kids today anyway - nobody wants to smell your piss or see the deuce you dropped FLush the god damn toilet!

Quoted: You germophobes do realize that there's bacteria everywhere, right?

+1.
I have never met a bigger bunch of Nancy-Boys scared of germs, etc.

Have you ever heard of building up your immunities?

I do wash afterwards, but I don't freak out about dirty bathrooms.

Quoted: You germophobes do realize that there's bacteria everywhere, right?

No, most of the OCD types wouldn't sleep through the night for a week if you grew a culture from their fingernails, mouth, or crotch.

I sterilize my hands with urine when I'm done.  

Do you wash your dick before your S/O sticks it in her mouth?

I keep hand sanitizer with me at all times. I never get sick.

Quoted: Do you wash your dick before your S/O sticks it in her mouth?

Yes.

Quoted: I keep hand sanitizer with me at all times. I never get sick.

I never use that garbage.  I haven't been sick enough to miss work a single day in the last 15 years.  Causation does not equal correlation.  Using that shit won't keep you from getting sick, it will help lighten your wallet a little though.  Most influenza based illnesses are going to get you through the respiratory tract anyway, better start wearing a cool Michael Jackson mask.  

Quoted: Quoted: Do you wash your dick before your S/O sticks it in her mouth? Yes.

Yes. I would never want some poor girl tasting bacteria/smegma and likewise - the girl better wash her snatch if she wants me to go down on her

Dear Cecil:

First, an (elderly) joke.

A Harvard man and a Yale man are at the urinal. They finish and zip up. The Harvard man proceeds to the sink to wash his hands, while the Yale man immediately makes for the exit.

The Harvard man says, "At Hah-vahd they teach us to wash our hands after we urinate."

The Yale man replies, "At Yale they teach us not to piss on our hands."

My question: why is it customary for males to wash their hands after urination? I never do, which shocks and disgusts some of my guy friends. I bathe daily and wear fresh underpants, so how does my penis get dirty? It's not like I dig a ditch with it. However, my hands might get dirty from daily activities. Is it not more sensible then to wash my hands before touching my clean penis? Is posturination hand washing a throwback to the bad old days, when sex was "dirty" and so, by extension, were sex organs? I'm serious about this. Please advise. --Tom Sharpley, Los Angeles

Dear Tom:

Good (if elderly) joke. Common (but stupid) attitude. Rank (but important) topic. Some facts:

The purpose of washing is not to get pee off your hands.
No amount of washing will make you clean.
You have to do it anyway.
I've said this before: your boxer-shorts region--from belly button to mid-thigh--is crawling with germs known as coliform bacteria. These bacteria originated in your intestine, and some of them are deadly. Remember punji stakes? They were sharpened sticks that the Vietcong concealed point up along trails and daubed with excrement. If you stepped on one you had a good chance of contracting a fatal infection. Similarly, an otherwise not-so-serious gunshot or knife injury could kill you if it perforated the intestine and allowed coliform bacteria to spread around your abdomen.

But you know this (or at least you ought to). What you may not know is that washing will not make the coliform bacteria go away. They're holed up in the pores of your skin and nothing short of sandblasting--certainly not your morning shower--is going to get them out. Showering merely gets rid of the ones that have strayed onto the surface. The bacteria won't do much harm if they stay put, but when you urinate your fingers come in contact with Mister P. long enough for the coliform bacteria in your pores to hop aboard. Your fingers subsequently touch lots of other infectible items. If you don't wash your hands with soap and water (soap gets rid of the skin oil that the bacteria stick to) . . . hello, Typhoid Mary.

It now dawns on you: jeez, if merely touching my privates is enough to transmit bacteria, it doesn't matter if I pee or not! Just so. Urine itself is actually fairly sterile. Cecil has read reports of it being used during wartime in poor countries as--I'm not making this up--a sort of battlefield Bactine. (U.S. doctors generally blanch at this.) The lesson to draw from this, however, is not that you can go forth dripping (yuck), but rather that just because you didn't pee on your fingers doesn't mean you can skip washing up.

WATCH WHAT YOU EAT

Dear Cecil:

After reading your column on hand washing after urination, I'm certain I'm going to die--that is, if coliform bacteria are as bad as you say. My girlfriend and I often share the pleasures of fellatio and cunnilingus. Heck, one night I even got up the nerve to perform (ahem) analingus. But what about the dread coliform bacteria? I'm certain some of these bacteria came in contact with our mouths at some time. Yet I have never been sick due to these forms of sexual gratification. Do we just swallow it and put it back where it came from (our intestines) or what? Please don't tell me I have to refrain from yet another fun thing to do. --Matt Hostetler, via the Internet; similarly from Peter Montgomery, Don Martin, Bubba the Salty Dog, Dr. Dormammu, J. Moore, Parker Trudeau, Joe Mantango, David Reid

Cecil replies:

Nothing like causing a national panic. Now I know why Pat Buchanan likes to run for president. Mrs. Adams had the same thought you guys did, probably at about the same point during the evening's proceedings. "Babe," I said, "you think sex is safe? Let me tell you about sexually transmitted diseases." Not the most romantic line I ever used. But the truth is you can catch lots of bugs via oral sex. Many of them are transmitted by, or have their transmission facilitated by, coliform or other fecal bacteria or, for that matter, fecal viruses. There's no point in stopping now though. You can catch most of the same germs from intercourse, kissing, or simply holding hands.

For example, a common complaint among women is urinary-tract infection, which is often caused by sexually transmitted fecal bacteria. Research suggests these bacteria travel to the entrance of the vagina, get shoved in by the penis during intercourse, and then migrate to the bladder. In other words, the guy helps infect the woman with her own germs. (Doctors--male ones usually--blame this on the "woefully short" female urethra.) It seems likely oral sex could accomplish the same thing, but for a given infection there's no way to tell.

It's rare that a specific sexual practice is associated with spreading germs, but there are exceptions. About 20 years ago clinicians began noticing what has come to be called "gay bowel syndrome," a collection of intestinal and rectal complaints that frequently plague gay men. Many of these illnesses stem from infection by fecal bacteria following anal sex--specifically, anal intercourse, analingus, and fellatio following anal intercourse. Some heterosexual couples (estimates range from 5 to 27 percent) also engage in anal sex, and they're at risk too.

The question is how much risk. The answer is probably not much, unless they're unusually out there sexually. A key factor in gay bowel syndrome and in the spread of STDs generally is multiple sex partners, which exponentially increases your exposure to infection. In contrast, monogamous couples, whether gay or straight, soon achieve "homeostasis"--they've swapped germs, didn't come down with anything, and thereafter coexist in a state of microbial equilibrium. That's not to say they're germfree; they may simply be "asymptomatic carriers" of some bug that doesn't make them sick but that might lay low an outsider. Granted, the danger isn't very great, but it exists. I was just reading in the Harvard Medical School Health Letter about a 51-year-old guy who learned that hepatitis C had destroyed his liver. He'd had no previous symptoms, but the kicker is that he'd contracted hepatitis C 46 years before. Hepatitis C isn't transmitted by fecal bacteria; my point is that just because you don't think you have anything doesn't mean you don't. Thus the apparent paradox: you can frolic with your honey all you want, but you still have to wash your hands after using the pot.

WE'RE DOOMED

Mindful of our discussion about the importance of washing one's hands after going to the bathroom and recalling my comment that urine itself, being fairly sterile, is not the problem, a reader sent me a clipping from the March/April 1996 Yoga Journal.

Here's the headline: "Drink to Your Health: Wealthy French women bathed in it, Chinese doctors used it to soothe sore throats, and now you--all squeamishness aside--can drink it to cure what ails you."

Guess what "it" is.

You guessed right.

I'm serious.

I quote author Blake More:

"Odds are you're among the 27 million Americans who recycle. . . . Would you be willing to take the act of recycling a step further and internally honor your bodily home, if it meant you'd have more energy, a stronger immune system, and an ageless complexion? Of course you would."

Welcome to urine therapy.

All it takes, says Blake, is eight ounces a day.

Blake first heard about UT from a naturopath in Japan. Of course she had to try it--wouldn't you? Four years later, she reports, "I'm a different person. I'm more in tune with my body's needs and functions, and no longer anemic or hypoglycemic. I rarely get colds, haven't had the flu in years, and the yeast infection that had long been plaguing me is gone. . . . I now feel healthy and strong." Only problem is gargling with those little deodorant blocks.

She goes on to give a long list of diseases, including many related to AIDS, that urine therapy will supposedly alleviate. The list includes everything from gangrene to hair loss to malaria. Sure.

While I don't suppose there's any danger urine therapy will become the next macarena, I did take the precaution of checking out the concept with University of Chicago kidney specialist Dr. John Asplin. He thought urine consumption in moderate quantities was probably harmless.

The stuff is fairly sterile, and if you do happen to have a urinary-tract infection or something, well, you've already got whatever germs you're consuming. (Former Indian prime minister Moraji Desai, a daily urine drinker, lived to be 99.)

On the other hand, Asplin said, UT isn't likely to do you much good either. Listen to your body. Your body is saying, "I just got rid of this stuff, granola-brain. Are you nuts?"

But if you want to try it, be my guest. Just don't eat any asparagus first.

--CECIL ADAMS

The faucets always look way dirtier than my dick in public bathrooms.

Quoted: actually in a public place I wash my Dick Scratchers Before an Afterwards my Block and Tackle is near and Dear to me Take care your Cock and use a Condom with your Randy way,, as for the Muffin Ovens,,,,sheesh

[Samuel L. Jackson]'ENGLISH motherfucker, DO YOU SPEAK IT!?!"[/SLJ]

Quoted: Quoted: actually in a public place I wash my Dick Scratchers Before an Afterwards my Block and Tackle is near and Dear to me Take care your Cock and use a Condom with your Randy way,, as for the Muffin Ovens,,,,sheesh [Samuel L. Jackson]'ENGLISH motherfucker, DO YOU SPEAK IT!?!"[/SLJ]

Sounds like the Queen's English, buggerer!

Quoted: Public bathrooms creep me out. You take care of bidness, wash your hands and then have to touch the door handle that everyone that hasn’t washed their hands have touched. Bummer.

Please don't tell me you're one of those assholes who takes a piece of paper towel over to open the door, and then that paper towel gets dropped on the floor

You know what?  All those people who use the restroom, don't wash their hands, and then open the restroom door... also touch everything else you're touching every day.  Germs!  Germs!  GERMS!!!

Quoted: I read something interesting about this actually - architects are starting to design more bathrooms to have the 'maze' style entrance (like you see in stadiums and airports) so that people don't have to touch doors. Pretty neat stuff.

Yeah!  It's so neat to feed their neuroses!  That makes them much better-balanced folks in the rest of life, too!

I believe that people wash their hands too often.

1. Piss
2. Get paper towels, turn on faucet with paper towel,
3. Wash hands.
4. (always have 2 wads of paper towels) throw the 1st one away, use the clean one to dry your hands.
5. Use paper towel to open the door, if no trash can is there, quickly toss it behind door on  your way out with a cool look on your face like you own the place.

lol

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I read something interesting about this actually - architects are starting to design more bathrooms to have the 'maze' style entrance (like you see in stadiums and airports) so that people don't have to touch doors. Pretty neat stuff. Yeah!  It's so neat to feed their neuroses!  That makes them much better-balanced folks in the rest of life, too! My neurosis derives from a microbiology degree and a few years working in a clinical environment. Some guy who just had sex takes a leak, doesn't wash, then touches that doorknob, then you touch it right after him, then put your finger in your mouth.  You biologically just had sex with everyone he did and everyone his partner did. Hows that for scary. Tj

Then you'll know how hostile the acids in saliva and stomach acid are to bacteria.    If people knew how much live bacteria was in every food they eat they would be grossed out for sure.  

Wash before and after.  Use paper to avoid touching anything.  The ones that are too cheap to provide paper towels really piss me off, but then I just use a giant wad of shit paper.  



It's normal hygiene.  If more people followed it, we wouldn't have as many sick people hacking up their lungs.

ok, not washing your hands after is just nasty folks.

as far as public restrooms? i usually flush with my foot, wash hands, and the either use paper towl or my shirt to handle the door handle with.

as little contact with anything in a public restroom is how i operate.

depends on is i touch my junk, and if the bathroom is mine or not


its complicated

YES

Quoted: You germophobes do realize that there's bacteria everywhere, right?

yes but some of us don't wipe our dicks on everything. Guys who don't basically are.

Its not about getting germs. It called not being an inconsiderate wiper of dick cheese on everything barbarian. I think they call it being considerate.


ETA for the arfcom troglodytes

Yes. I'm not some damn savage.

I wash my hands before I pee

Yes, I'm quite germophobic.

After my last battle with MRSA...you fuckin betchya....cant be too careful

I do wash or alcohol gel before I go at work. I do the same after I leave the b-room.
Regular public shitters...no way. I touch nothing.

Quoted: Quoted: actually in a public place I wash my Dick Scratchers Before an Afterwards my Block and Tackle is near and Dear to me Take care your Cock and use a Condom with your Randy way,, as for the Muffin Ovens,,,,sheesh [Samuel L. Jackson]'ENGLISH motherfucker, DO YOU SPEAK IT!?!"[/SLJ]

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=646961&page=2

I wash and carry hand sanitizer.

Quoted: Quoted: actually in a public place I wash my Dick Scratchers Before an Afterwards my Block and Tackle is near and Dear to me Take care your Cock and use a Condom with your Randy way,, as for the Muffin Ovens,,,,sheesh [Samuel L. Jackson]'ENGLISH motherfucker, DO YOU SPEAK IT!?!"[/SLJ]

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=646961&page=2

I wash and carry hand sanitizer.

Washing your hands is not about removing evil death germs that reside on your privates. It's about taking a reasonable amount of effort to remove contaminates from the part of your body that touches the most foreign surfaces throughout the day and rubs your eye, picks your nose, holds your burrito, etc.

There is a vast differance between touching a bathroom door handle and eating food cooked in water contaminated with Typhus. If you can't handle fighting off the germs that exist on a bathroom door handle then your immune system is in need of improvement.

Washing your hands when you go to the bathroom is a good idea because YOU ARE ALREADY IN A PLACE THAT HAS A SINK. Not because you have touched your wee-wee and now have the Andromeda Strain on your fingers.

Get rid of the idea that you can wash up and steralize yourself from those evil germs. Embrace the idea that you can remove contaminates, be they germs, viruses, lead dust, dog slobber, etc. several times a day when it is handy because you are already in the bathroom.

As for carrying aneseptic wipes everywhere you go, unless you work in a hospital or other high risk environment, you might want to seek some help from a counselor about your clean/unclean issues.

Gringop

Okay, for those who say washing your hands is being a pussy:
If having dirty hands isn't a challenge for your immune system, why is the best defense against getting sick during cold and flu season washing your hands?

i always use a paper towel to open the door. unless i can just push it open, then i use my foot to push my way though the door.

I take it most of the lady-boys here don't spend much time outdoors.

"Oh shit!  I can't take a piss because there isn't a stream of chlorinated tap water and a soap dispenser nearby!!!  Germs and kooties! Eeeeewwww!!"