National Handwashing Week, December 6-12, 2009, has come and gone with only scant attention paid to its mascot, Henry the Hand. In part, this is due to the low amount of hand-washing and other hand-sanitizing that occurs in the United States. That non-compliance was observed and documented by John Trinkaus in his recent study “Hand Sanitizing: An Informal Look“.
Henry the Hand does not officially represent handwashing weeks in nations other than the US, so far as we are aware. Those handwashing weeks deserve attention, too. We hope someone will give each of them a Hand.
