Cold or hot water, effect is same while washing hands: Study

This study may have significant implications towards water energy.

It may a pointless exercise to wash your hands only with hot water. Scientists have found that washing hands with cold water is equally effective at killing germs.

Washing even for 10 seconds significantly removed bacteria from the hands, researchers have also found.

People need to feel comfortable when they are washing their hands but as far as effectiveness, this study shows us that the temperature of the water used did not matter," said Donald Schaffner, professor at Rutgers University in the US.

In the study, high levels of a harmless bacteria were put on the hands of 21 participants multiple times over a six- month period before they were asked to wash their hands in 60 -degree, 79-degree or 100-degree water temperatures using 0.5 millilitre (ml), 1 ml or 2 ml volumes of soap.

"This study may have significant implications towards water energy, since using cold water saves more energy than warm or hot water," said Schaffner.

While the study indicates that there is no difference between the amount of soap used, more work needs to be done to understand exactly how much and what type of soap is needed to remove harmful microbes from hands, researchers said.

This is important because the biggest public health need is to increase hand-washing or hand sanitising by food-service workers and the public before eating, preparing food and after using the restroom," said Jim Arbogast, co-author of the study published in the Journal of Food Protection.

OneIndia News