Hand hygiene.

At workplaces, there are many surfaces that are exposed daily by bacteria. Maintaining good hygiene in the workplace is important to prevent bacteria spread and develop into colds, viruses and other diseases. To prevent this, we recommend three general rules that help minimize the risk of bacteria spreading in the workplace, thus reducing diseases among employees:

• Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly

By washing your hands with soap and water, the bacteria are washed out of your hands. Further down the page we go through how to wash your hands.

• Cough in the armrest

When coughing or sneezing spread infectious agents. Coughing and sneezing in the armrest prevents infection from spreading to your surroundings or to your hands.

• Avoid contact with eyes, nose, mouth

Everyone has been tired and rubbed our eyes. But the most common way for harmful bacteria to get into the body is through eyes, nose, mouth and open wounds. Then try to avoid hand contact in these areas.

You should encourage your colleagues to wash and dry their hands before lunch and after a restroom visit. Also make sure that there is always soap and paper towels at all the washbasins in the workplace.

In some periods when there are a lot of illnesses, it may also be good to have supplementary hand disinfection available at the toilets, at the reception or in the dining room.

You should also make sure to clean, or encourage staff to clean, things that many regularly touch during the work day, eg. keyboards, telephones, toilets, coffee machines etc.

How to wash your hands with soap.

To effectively remove bacteria from your hands, use the following method:

1. Wet your hands with water. The hands should be wet before applying soap.

2. Apply the soap on your hands. Process the soap for 20 seconds to create an abundant solder. Then cover all surfaces of your hands; hand back, between fingers, palm, every single finger and wrist.

3. Rinse thoroughly with water to wash off the bacteria

4. Thoroughly wipe your hands with a paper towel. By wiping your hands you get rid of the last bacteria. Moisture hands attract m

How to use hand disinfection

Use this method to apply hand disinfection

1. Make sure your hands are dry

2. Apply plenty of hand disinfection (at least 3 ml). Distribute the agent across all surfaces of the hands; hand back, between fingers, palm, every single finger and wrist.

3. Keep your hands moist from the agent for at least 30 seconds - so that the agent may work

4. Rub until the hands are completely dry

Author: Tingstad

Last Updated: 2023-12-08