Clean Break: How Handwashing Stops Illness Before It Starts
You touch a lot of stuff every day: things like light switches, coffee makers, gas pumps, grocery cart handles and your phone. One estimate puts the average person's daily contact with objects at about 140 per day. Each one is a chance for germs to hitch a ride. Bacteria, such as cold and flu viruses, can survive on surfaces for hours or even days, meaning every touch is an opportunity to move them somewhere new.
It's why, if we learned anything from the pandemic, it's that handwashing matters. It's one of the simplest, most reliable ways to protect yourself and the people around you from getting sick. And yet, most of us don't give it much thought, even though it can be the difference between bringing germs home and leaving them behind.
On average, hands can carry more than 3,000 different germs at once, making it easy to infect yourself by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. How easy? Touch your face – something one study found people do about 23 times per hour – and you've created a direct path into your body.
However, while proper handwashing is quick and easy, it's an act that is also easy to skip. That's a problem, because clean hands don't just keep you healthy at home. They make a difference in almost every space we move through each day.
The Ripple Effect of Handwashing
Hand washing has a bigger role in more settings than most of us realize. It shapes outcomes in every environment we live, work and gather. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates proper hand hygiene could prevent millions of illnesses every year, from infections caught in hospitals to colds spread around classrooms and workplaces.
School classrooms and day care facilities are perfect germ amplifiers. Kids share toys, supplies and spaces, which means they also share germs. Offices aren't much different; the coffee machine, the elevator button and the conference room table all see dozens of hands a day. When handwashing slips, the result is the same: more sick days, more missed classes and outbreaks that ripple through entire families.
Fact is, anywhere people cycle through in large numbers, like workplaces, airports, gyms and grocery stores, germs can spread quickly. Each cart handle, treadmill or touchscreen is another handoff point for germs to move from one person to the next. Washing your hands is the simplest way to interrupt that chain, no matter where you are.
The Science Behind the Habit
Handwashing works because it removes the oils, dirt and germs your skin collects. On a purely physical level, this is due to friction plus some basic chemistry.
Soap is a surfactant, which means it breaks down the oils and dirt on your skin. It breaks apart the fatty outer layer of microbes, like prying open a shell. Then the friction from rubbing your hands loosens the germs, and water washes them away down the drain.
To get your hands clean, the WHO recommends at least 20 seconds of lathering, which is about the length of humming your favorite song chorus. Research shows five seconds of washing removes about 98% of bacteria, while 20 seconds removes over 99.5%. Beyond that, the benefits level off, and scrubbing too long can actually irritate skin and disturb its natural bacteria.
When access to soap and water isn’t possible, alcohol-based hand rubs are a safe and effective alternative. They can remove most harmful germs when hands aren’t visibly dirty, making them especially useful on the go in offices, airports, classrooms or anywhere running water is limited. Keeping sanitizer nearby makes it easier to stay consistent, even when a sink isn’t in sight.
Spreading Awareness, Sharing Expertise
Even knowing the science, many people cut corners when it comes to handwashing. Studies have identified a range of obstacles that stand in the way. We're in a rush to get out the door. Sometimes, sinks, soap or towels aren't available (a persistent barrier in schools and workplaces worldwide). Other times, we fall into a quick rinse "feels good enough" habit, even though it leaves most germs behind.
However, the consequences of skipping add up. Research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that regular handwashing with soap can prevent about 20% of respiratory infections (like colds) and 30% of diarrhea-related illnesses (like norovirus). What feels like saving a few seconds can turn into a chain of illness that affects dozens of others.
For example, programs like SC Johnson's Happy Hands Contest turn hygiene into something students actively engage with by asking them to design soap dispensers, making the habit of handwashing visible and memorable. Lessons learned in the classroom often carry home, helping to reinforce handwashing for entire families.
An often-neglected aspect of hand hygiene is the risk of touching surfaces or objects that can re-contaminate hands after washing. Combining the cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch objects and surfaces with effective hand hygiene at critical moments can help to break the cycle of recontamination.
SC Johnson incorporates this dual approach through its Targeted Hygiene Program, which brings together essential hand and surface hygiene products with practical education tools. The program helps people focus on the moments that matter most, improving common hygiene practices with a clear understanding of how germs spread and how simple, targeted actions can stop infections in public spaces before they start.
From factories to office buildings, providing practical tools and skin care solutions helps people build consistent hand hygiene habits. The idea is to reinforce the science, supporting the new WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in community settings in action and helping people make a simple choice that keeps them and others healthier.