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New Yorkers Last in the Nation for Hand Washing, Poll Says

By Nicole Bode | September 14, 2010 7:37am
Women in New York have the worst track record of washing their hands after going to the bathroom than anywhere else in the rest of the country.
Women in New York have the worst track record of washing their hands after going to the bathroom than anywhere else in the rest of the country.
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AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

By Nicole Bode

DNAinfo Senior Editor

MANHATTAN – The big apple has some big problems with hand-washing after using the bathroom, according to a new survey.

New York landed in last place in a roundup of how many people washed their hands after using public restrooms around the country, with 21 percent of people in Penn Station and Grand Central strolling out without touching soap or water in 2010.

That’s compared to just 11 percent of sink-shirkers in Chicago and San Francisco, and 18 percent in Atlanta, according to the survey from the American Society for Microbiology and the American Cleaning Institute. New York’s hand-washing average stayed the same from 2007, the study found.

Women in New York are also the dirtiest in the country, with 17 percent of visitors to the women’s bathroom at Penn Station leaving without washing their hands, and 16 percent of women in Grand Central doing the same.

Atlanta ladies, in comparison, can boast an admirable 2 percent failure rate.

The findings were drawn from four days of undercover monitors counting visitors to the Penn Station and Grand Central bathrooms and other public washrooms around the country. The survey counted more than 6,000 people.