English archive > Washing your hands > When must you wash your hands?

You must wash your hands very often every day, even though you don’t think it necessary. Certainly much more often than you do now.

As we’ve already said, there may always be dangerous bacteria on our hands, which are harmful to our health.

Sometimes you may think your hands are clean if they are not black, covered in mud or ball-point pen stains or paint marks. But even if you think they are clean because they don’t look dirty, bacteria and germs are TINY and cannot be seen with the naked eye. They could be hidden anywhere...

There are times when you must wash your hands:

Before...

Eating, having your breakfast, lunch, tea or supper.

Before writing, doing your homework or playing with the computer.

Before preparing a sandwich.

After...

Going to the toilet.

Playing ball, or touching flowers, grass, toys, earth, touching anything lying in the yard...

Touching animals.

It is very important that you wash your hands after visiting a friend who has a cold, for example, and you touch his or her hand or give them a toy.