Taking action to make hand hygiene more inclusive

Every day, many people go about their daily lives, socializing and working while quietly facing a hidden struggle in one of the busiest spaces: the public restroom. Maintaining good hygiene is extremely challenging without hygienic public restrooms.

This is because many people face visible and invisible barriers, like cognitive conditions or changes with age or circumstances, that impact how they experience public restrooms. Often, public restrooms are not equipped to accommodate their needs. As a result, more people than you may realize face barriers that hinder them from comfortably accessing proper hygiene when at work or in public. In fact, recent Tork research shows 44%¹ of people feel anxious about using public restrooms when leaving their home.

This anxiety can stem from various types of hygiene barriers:

• Age-related barriers
  Our personal capabilities change with age, affecting mobility, reach and strength. In fact, around 1 in 5 adults experience difficulties using soap or hand towel dispensers due to an injury, health condition, physical capability or as a parent with a child.²
• Auditory sensitivity
  Some people are more sensitive to loud noises than others, especially the neurodivergent or autistic, as well as young children. 1 in 7 American adults cited loud noises as a source of difficulty personally or when assisting a child using public restrooms.²
• Hygiene concerns
  Many people avoid visiting public toilets and washing their hands due to poor hygiene levels. And more than 1 in 3 Americans cite lack of cleanliness as a barrier to using workplace or public restrooms.²
• Skin sensitivities
  Some soaps contain ingredients that can cause skin irritation. In the US, 31.6 million people suffer from eczema³ and may find that some hand soaps irritate their skin.

Take action to make hand hygiene more inclusive

This idea that hygiene in public restrooms needs to be inclusive of all types of people is tremendously important. For Tork, inclusive hygiene means eliminating the visible and invisible barriers to hygiene that individuals face so that as many people as possible can have comfortable access to public restrooms.

Here are five easy steps you can take in your public restrooms:

• Install dispensers with high capacity to reduce run outs
• Ensure restrooms are kept clean at all times
• Install dispensers that are easy to use for people with reduced hand function
• Use soap and sanitizer products that are kind to skin and dermatologically tested
• Install dispensers that control consumption and increase hygiene with one-at-a-time dispensing

It is time to raise awareness for the millions of people who are challenged by the state of hygiene in public restrooms. And Tork is leading the way in more inclusive hygiene solutions.

Learn more about how Tork partnered with Global Handwashing Partnership to discuss how hygiene in public restrooms can be improved and made more inclusive for users: Lack of inclusive hygiene in public restrooms: a health risk quietly impacting millions .

Partner with Hillyard and Tork

Hillyard can help you explore the broad range of Tork product offerings to create more inclusive and hygienic restrooms. Fill out the "I'm Interested" form at the bottom of this page, and we will contact you to discuss solutions that meet your facility's needs.

Footnotes

1. Data from the 2024 Tork Insights Survey of 6,000 individuals 18-65+ and 900 respondents representing businesses in the United States, Mexico, UK, Germany and France
2. Tork launched its global effort to advance inclusive hygiene in US March 2024 using printed paper towels as a medium through its “paper towel plea". Examples of these hand-written notes from individuals who face barriers related to age, neurodiversity, skin sensitivities and hygiene-related concerns are shown on torkglobal.com.
3. British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 190, Issue 1, January 2024