TEAL helping to promote hand hygiene in schools

Young people in the UK are being asked about the state of toilets in their schools and colleges and their own personal hygiene habits in an online survey – sponsored by hand hygiene specialists TEAL – to mark Global Handwashing Day on October 15th.

Co-ordinated by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), who organise activities for Global Handwashing Day in the UK, the survey is being promoted to 30,000 schools via an e-newsletter.

TEAL is a member of a coalition of private and public sector companies and organisations assembled by staff at the LSHTM to promote hand hygiene in schools through events and activities for Global Handwashing Day.

The LSHTM team will analyse responses to the survey and announce the preliminary results on Global Handwashing Day. Similar questionnaires are being distributed to schools around the world as part of a global research project.

“Handwashing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia, which together are responsible for the deaths of over 3.5m children worldwide under the age of 5 - every year. Handwashing with soap also helps prevent the spread of viral infections, such as norovirus, rotavirus and influenza,” says Global Handwashing Day UK Coordinator Helen Tipper.

“We want to find out more about children’s hand washing practices in schools and investigate whether the facilities provided are sufficient to encourage good hand hygiene. Without the support of TEAL we wouldn’t be able to conduct this research in the UK,” she adds.

Log on to www.globalhandwashingday.org.uk to access the survey.

Free downloadable handwashing teaching resources

Free resources to encourage small children to wash their hands can be found at the Learning and Resources Zone of this website.