Poor hygiene practices in Singapore

Poor hygiene can lead to disease, illness and even death. In a time when we are so concerned about bird flu, SARS etc., people should take more care of what they are doing to ensure proper hygiene practices are enforced. Let's take a look at some of the poor hygiene practices that I have discovered while I have been in Singapore.

Cleaner picking rubbish from the trash bins
I find it strange that cleaners at shopping centres use tongs to pick rubbish from trash bins. Instead of visiting every bin and picking out individual rubbish items and putting it into another garbage bag, why don't they just empty the whole bin or just take the whole bag away? Is it because they want to save on garbage bags? What if the cleaner picked up a tissue with some flu germs? Or when he was reaching into the bin, the germs got onto his hands and arms? Isn't it more likely that germs can be spread easier by picking up the rubbish scraps one at a time than if the rubbish was emptied in one go.

Food trays not clean properly
What about food trays? Cleaners at coffee shops just wipe the trays and replace them for use again. Did you ever consider how many times the towel has been used before it was washed?

Mixing food preparation with handling of money
Have you bought roti prata from a guy who handed you the cash as well as made your prata by hand? Did that guy wash his hands before making the roti prata? Did you know that money is very dirty. One of the studies done revealed that money contains many traces of bacteria and germs. It doesn't surprise me, since money is occassionally dropped on the ground, perhaps even in the toilet, touched by dirty hands and never gets washed.

No sense of dirtiness
I have seen the cleaner in my condo, standing and jumping on top of the rubbish to flatten it out so that he can close the large bin. The bin contains all sorts of stuff you probably wouldn't want to know about. The germs and bacteria would have certainly got into his shoes, clothes and parts of this body. I don't think he would have taken a good shower or bath afterwards.

Nose picking in public
Another disgusting thing is people picking their noses in public. I was having Teppanyaki at Tampines Mall Basement 1 recently. As I was eating my pepper lamb, there was a girl in her late twenty, sitting right in front of me, picking away at her nose! Totally disgusting! Why couldn't she have gone to the toilets and did the cleaning there?