KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 ― If you ever needed a solid reason to wash your hands thoroughly, the jaw-dropping results of a recent experiment by a group of elementary school students in Idaho, United States may have you covered.
Behavioural specialist Jaralee Annice Metcalf and special education teacher Dayna Robertson conducted a month-long experiment at the Discovery Elementary School in Idaho Falls to show the effects of germ-filled hands on pieces of fresh bread.
Metcalf then posted the mind-blowing results on Facebook and it quickly went viral.
The post has been shared over 68,000 times and has garnered over 10,000 comments, mostly praising the two teachers for their dedication and brilliance.
To do the experiment, the teachers took five slices of fresh, white bread and exposed each to a different level of contaminants.
One was touched with unwashed hands of all the 17 students, another with hands that had hand sanitiser, one more with hands washed with warm water and soap, and another slice rubbed on one of the Chromebook laptops from the class.
Lastly, a piece was handled with gloves so that it was untouched by bare hands.
The bread slices were then placed and sealed in five different ziplock bags right after they were touched so that air wouldn’t have any significant effects on them.
The teachers then hung the ziplock bags on the wall for the class to observe over a period of time.
A month later, the difference between each slice was insane.
The untouched bread with the piece touched by clean hands appeared mould-less and considerably clean.
But the results for the other three slices were another story.
The bread wiped on the laptop was almost completely black, while the one touched by dirty hands wasn’t far behind.
Surprisingly, the bread touched with the sanitiser also exuded a blotch of disgusting mould.
Speaking to TODAY, Robertson said the students thought it was gross, but they have really turned their hand-washing around since the experiment.
“They realised that hand sanitiser doesn’t cut it, and they’ve got to do soap and water.”
Metcalf also said that other teachers across the country have since said that they, too, will conduct the experiment, which was inspired by the University of Michigan-affiliated CS Mott Children’s Hospital after the posted it on their social media.
“It’s kind of cool to see that it's inspired a lot of other people to take a look at how they wash their hands to keep healthy,” she said, adding that unwashed hands can affect more than just one person.
