[The title
was written by my editor.]
Researchers investigated the hygienic impact
of common human greetings and found that while the fist bump is the cleanest,
the handshake is such a useful interaction that it will not likely fade.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
A handshake
can say a lot about a person, but new research suggests that it also transfers
the most germs of the common forms of human greeting. On the other hand, the
fist bump turns out to be the most hygienic physical greeting.
Researchers
at the Institute of Biological, Environmental, and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth
University in the United Kingdom conducted trials to assess the level of
bacteria transfer of various physical human greetings. The goal of the research
was to determine which alternatives to the handshake were more hygienic.
The
experiments involved greeters immersing their sterile-gloved hand into a
container of germs, letting the glove dry, and then exchanging a handshake,
fist bump, or high-five with a recipient wearing a sterile glove. The
recipient’s glove was then tested for germ presence.
Handshakes
were found to transfer almost twice the number of bacteria as a high-five. What
is more, the fist bump transferred significantly fewer bacteria than the
high-five. Regardless of which mode was tested, the duration of contact and
stronger grips were associated with greater bacteria transfer.
“Adoption of
the fist bump as a greeting could substantially reduce the transmission of
infectious diseases between individuals,” said corresponding author, David
Whitworth, PhD. “It is unlikely that a no‐contact greeting could supplant the
handshake; however, for the sake of improving public health we encourage
further adoption of the fist bump as a simple, free, and more hygienic
alternative to the handshake.”
Recently, a
call to ban handshakes in the hospital environment was published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association. Healthcare-associated infections are
among the leading causes of preventable illness and death in the U.S.,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The present study on the germ-spreading potential of common greetings was
published this week in the American Journal of Infection Control.
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