Someone wrote me this morning and said at their U.S. elementary school, the 5^th graders are not permitted to wash hands after mandatory bathroom times and the teacher stands outside of the bathroom with hand sanitizer squirting it as each child leaves the bathroom. The hand dryers are too loud and the teachers don’t want wet hands because there’s no paper towel.

This as UN deputy secretary general, Jan Eliasson, warned the world’s lack of progress in building toilets and ending open defecation is having a “staggering” effect on the health, safety, education, prosperity and dignity of 2.5 billion people.

They may not be related, but proper sanitation requires access to proper tools.

In Denmark, nearly one-quarter of foodborne illness outbreaks from 2005 to 2011 were caused by asymptomatic food handlers, according to researchers from the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen.

“Symptoms compatible with norovirus infection among household members, especially children, of food handlers should be taken into account, as mechanical transfer of virus particles from private homes to industrial kitchens appears to be an important cause of outbreaks,” the researchers wrote in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. “Existing guidelines recommend exclusion of symptomatic and post-symptomatic food handlers and strict hand hygiene, when household members are ill with gastroenteritis.”

A study in Finland concluded Noroviruses are easily transferred to ready-to-eat foods via foodservice workers’ handling.

Researchers at the Finnish Food Safety Authority and the University of Helsinki confirm virus-free food ingredients and good hand hygiene are needed to prevent contamination of prepared foods.

Promote hand hygiene, but the tools have to be there.