JUST FIVE MORE SECONDS

SDA Survey Key Findings

Workplace Hygiene Needs Improvement

·         40 percent of American employees don’t wash their hands long enough – 15 seconds or more.

·         40 percent of American workers don’t wash their hands often enough. (At least five times daily)

·         58 percent of American employers don’t post hand washing reminder signs in bathrooms and kitchens.

Bad Habits Continue

·         73 percent of offices and customer service facilities and 74 percent of maintenance and construction operations do not post signs to remind their employees to wash their hands.

·         65 percent of maintenance and construction workers and 47 percent of office and customer service workers don’t wash their hands often enough. 

·         Approximately 50 percent of maintenance and construction workers don’t wash their hands long enough.

Encouragement Works

·         72 percent of U.S. workers wash their hands five or more times a day when their employers post hand washing signs.

·         88 percent of food service facilities and 67 percent of medical facilities post signs encouraging employee hand washing.

·         86 percent of medical employees and 68 percent of food service employees wash their hands five or more times a day.

Annual U.S. Economic Costs For Colds and Flu

·         $10 - $15 billion spent on sick days and lost earnings

·         $6.3 billion spent on treatments and medical visits

For more information on useful hand washing tips, as well as guidance for proper usage of laundry detergents and household cleaning products, visit SDA’s Web site at www.cleaning101.com.

The 2001 SDA National Cleaning Survey was based on telephone interviews conducted using a national sample of 1013 adult Americans, 18 years and older.  The survey was performed by Opinion Research Corporation International.