My Pet Peeve

  I know this definitely isnt gardening related, but it has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Ever since I saw a commercial on TV for it. It is a touchless soap dispenser. I am not going to give a brand name, because that really doesnt matter. It feels to me like companies are trying to cash-in on the H1N1 scare. Dont get me wrong, these dispensers certainly have their place. Such as in hospitals and public areas, but really only where they have also gone to the effort to install touchless water faucets as well. Otherwise they make no sense.
     Think about it for a minute. You have soiled your hands. lets say you just coughed and covered your mouth with your hands. If you dont immediately wash them you can spread these germs to anything or anyone you touch. You go to a public bathroom, You wash your hands like any diligent person, then turn off the faucet and grab a towel. Dry off your hands, toss your towel, and now reach for the bathroom doorknob. You think you have done your part in protecting yourself and others from the spread of even more germs. Wait! When you dried your hands and reached for the faucet to turn it off, you have already contaminated your nice clean hands with millions upon millions of germs left by the many people before you who have done the same.YUCK! You thought they were clean didnt you?
     When I was in nursing school, we didnt have all these fancy touchless things to make life easier. Yea, I know, I'm telling my age. We were taught to turn on the water, get some soap from the push button dispenser, wash your hands, pull a paper towel out of the dispenser, dry your hands, then grab a clean towel and use this to turn off the water faucet so your hands are not contaminated again by touching that dirty faucet. Here is where my pet peeve comes into play. I doubt very many private homes have touchless water faucets. So whats the sense in worrying about contaminating your hands by the soap dispenser when you never touch it again after washing your hands? You only touch the soap BEFORE you wash, not after. But guess what? You DO go back to that dirty faucet to turn it off. So what good has the touchless soap dispenser done you? Not much at home. But as I said, it is very important in the public setting.
     The most important thing we can do to prevent the spread of disease it frequent handwashing.I just cant see wasting hard-to-come-by funds on these dispensers for your home. I am sure there will be others that disagree, but I am OK with that. it's just my opinion. What do you think?