105 - Wash up on wash day

This is a short article from the January edition of AARP magazine.

Wash up on wash day.
Just how clean are your just laundered clothes? If you're like most Americans not very. Only 5% of Americans now regularly wash their underwear and towels in water that is hot enough - at least 160 degrees F - to kill the bacteria according to the University of Arizona environmental microbiologist Charles Gerba, PhD. That means live bacteria can spread from one garment to another when you remove your wet laundry, those live germs can get on your hands. Touch your mouth or rub your eyes and you might get a cold, an infection, or even E.coli.
Your defense: unless you use bleach or wash water at 160 degrees or hotter, head for the sink for a soapy hand wash immediately after putting laundry into the dryer (which is hot enough to kill bacteria). "In order to kill germs you need to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds and use plenty of soap and hot water," says Gerba. It's also wise to regularly use a commercial sanitizer to wipe the bottoms of handbags, which collect dangerous germs when placed on tabletops and public restroom floors.

To add to the problem not very many water heaters are set at 160 degrees. Most are set at 120 to prevent unknowing people from scalding themselves.