#146 It’s a no-brainer

The Columbus Dispatch this morning carried an article about the new regulation in central Ohio that patient care workers can’t have artificial fingernails. I think other areas had this regulation sooner, but perhaps it is just now coming to the attention of the reporter. The CDC guidelines. The history of hand hygiene and infections in hospitals.

Any woman who has ever worn fingernail polish for a few days and then removed it, should know why. Oh, yuck, is my thought as the polish remover reveals the crud under my nails that I haven’t been able to see while wearing polish. However, with artificial nails the bacteria can’t be removed because it lives between the artificial nail and the bed of the real nail (which it eats away).

That regulation should extend to food workers. Every time I see a waitress or grill cook or buffet stocker with artificial nails--bright colors and imbedded designs--I know exactly that she has brought along about a million of her closest little friends--bacteria, many from the restroom she just used.

Apparently sixteen babies had to die in a neonatal unit in 2000 before someone wised up and did a study on the nails of the medical staff. Even then, there were the experts (probably trying to avoid a law suit) who said those babies would have died of something else, if not that.