Section 5 - Hand Washing

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Section 5
Hand Washing

It had been suggested that in a great number of cases children who eat their midday meal at work did not wash their hands before eating. It was therefore decided to investigate this point.

It was planned that this question should be asked of children who took their midday meal at work but rather more than this group were asked. Of the 1,377 children answering this question 20.5% stated that they did not wash their hands, 27.8% of boys and 12.4% of girls. (Table 40).

It is likely that this result is an under statement.

An analysis by age showed no significant difference.

Table 40

“Do you wash your hands before having your midday meal?”

Analysis by Sex

	Yes		No		Total
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Boys	522	72.2	201	27.8	723	100
Girls	573	87.6	81	12.4	654	100
TOTAL	1,095	79.5	282	20.5	1,377	100

Analysis by Industry

The greatest proportion of children not washing their hands were found in Mining Surface, Wool Textiles and Heavy Engineering. The smallest proportion not washing their hands were found in Offices and shops. (Table 41).

Table 41

“Do you wash your hands before having your midday meal?”

Analysis by Industry

Industry	Yes		No		Total
Industry	No.	%	No.	%	Total
Light Engineering	465	88.2	62	11.8	527
Heavy Engineering	159	64.4	88	35.6	247
Textile: Wool	56	55.5	45	44.5	101
Textile: Cotton	31	-	2	-	33
Textile: Hosiery	10	-	-	-	10
Mining: Underground	1	-	4	-	5
Mining: Surface	32	35.2	59	64.8	91
Clerical: Industrial	32	-	2	-	34
Clerical: Business	229	96.2	9	3.8	238
Distributive	76	88.4	10	11.6	86
Miscellaneous: Factory	6	-	1	-	7
TOTAL	1,097	79.5	282	20.5	1,379

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