Offering a helping hand is often a gesture for spreading kindness.
However, a recent study shows kindness isn't the only thing being spread.
One-third of men don't wash their hands after using the restroom, a recent survey by the American Society for Microbiology and the Soap and Detergent Association said.
Researchers said they also found men often lie about cleaning their dirty paws.
The survey found that although 89 percent of men in a telephone poll state they wash their hands after using a public bathroom, only 66 percent were seen doing so, an article in USA Today said.
Women also are guilty of lying about hand washing.
Despite the fact that 96 percent of women surveyed claimed they washed their hands after using the bathroom, the researchers only saw 88 percent actually do so.
"I'm actually surprised that the number isn't higher," Stanley Mills, chief sanitarian at Cabell Huntington Health Department and integrated science professor, said. "Kids are great about washing their hands, but somewhere after grade school, people forget."
Curiosity of the findings in the survey sent members of The Parthenon to campus restrooms. One female and one male watched people come in and out of the bathrooms of the Memorial Student Center and Smith Hall for one hour and counted how many people washed their hands after using the restroom.
The two researchers reported that while observing a total of 19 male students and 19 female students, 21 percent of men didn't wash their hands, and only 1 percent of women didn't.
One male said he thinks this is because women use the stall while men don't always have to.
"Unless I go into the stall, I don't have to touch anything like the door or the flusher," Jeremy Vergenz, senior sign language translation major from Huntington, said. "I don't use my hands to flush the toilet - I use my foot."
Mills said touching the door or the handle isn't the only way of getting germs.
"Even if you don't touch the door or the flush handle, you can still pick up organisms from the zipper on your pants," Mills said.
Germs from fecal organisms people contract in the restroom have been the cause of different respiratory and diarrhea illnesses, Mills said.
He also said the only way to get rid of them is to wash hands thoroughly for 20 seconds and use paper towels to turn on sinks and exit.
"The best way to keep people washing is the constant reminder of the germs you can pick up," Mills said.
Alicia Merritt can be contacted at merritt38@marshall.edu.
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