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Germs and Proper Hand Washing Important During Flu Season |
 “Washing your hands is the most effect way to prevent spreading germs” says Rob Litchfield, Laboratory microbiologist at Mountain Valley Medical Clinic as he spoke to the younger grades at this year’s Health Fair held at Flood Brook elementary school. Seen here, Rob shows the students a petri dish full of germs that had been grown an incubator. The day before the event Rob visited a first grade class and had several of them touched the plate with unwashed hands. They then washed their hands as they normally would and retouched a new petri dish and they were amazed by the results! Lots of scare looking germs grew where the dirty hands touched!
“The germs we are talking about are not visible to the naked eye.” Rob told the students. In order to help them understand the importance of proper hand washing which includes using soap, washing for 20 seconds, and drying with a clean paper towel was well illustrated when they saw the gross germs that grew overnight from their dirty hands. They also saw how ineffective improper hand washing was when retouching a petri dish. Public areas like schools where you have a lot of people in close quarters make simple hygiene practices like hand washing very important.”
The Health Fair was held on Friday, June 12th and included other presenters covering many topics like recycling, safety, and wellness. The students seemed really engaged and good times were had by all!
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