Wahrman - The Hand Book: Surviving in a Germ-Filled World

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would not have been able to write this book if I had not been born to two amazing parents, who raised me to be inquisitive, confident, skeptical, and wary of germs. I am grateful to my parents, of blessed memory, for a loving home, and for their constant encouragement and support. My interest in science was ignited by my loving, resourceful, and patient mother; my role model, Edith Zahavy, with whom I conversed every day; and my brilliant, loving, generous, creative, unconventional father, Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy, who reinvented himself in middle age to become an English professor and cosmologist. My exceptional brothers, Rabbi Dr. Tzvee Zahavy and Professor Reuvain Zahavy, let me tag along with them throughout my childhood, including me in their adventures, inviting me into the tree house, and passing on their microscopes, chemistry sets, trains, and Lincoln Logs. My brothers grew up to be my dear friends, who are still role models, and people I consult and confer with over important issues. I thank Tzvee for encouraging me to write for America Online, for feedback on this book, and most important, for bringing Bernice Zahavy into our familyas she is a best friend and someone I can always count on.

I met my husband, Dr. Israel Wahrman, Esq., when I was seventeen, and two years later I was his teenage bride. We have been growing up together ever since. Traveling lifes bumpy road with him has been a wonderful adventure, and his love and support have enabled me to achieve many dreams. He contributed tremendously to this project with sage advice and insightful feedback on the manuscript. He soars like an eagle in his own achievements, as a husband and father, in his career in psychology, as a midlife law student and now an administrative law judge. To him I owe my deepest love and gratitude, as well as pride in all he has accomplished.

On this bumpy road of life we have been blessed with tremendous joy and with loving family and friends. We were blessed with two delightful little girls, who washed their hands as needed and grew up into two beautiful, intelligent, and delightful women. I thank my dear daughters, Abigail Rebecca Cooper, M.D., and Susanna Wahrman Ratner, Esq., for their unwavering support and for critical reading of the manuscript. A doctor and a lawyer, what more could a mother want? Well, life just keeps on giving, and our daughters gave us two brilliant, kind, and caring sons-in-law, anesthesiologist Eliyahu Cooper, M.D., and mathematician Michael Ratner. And blessings continue to flow from above, in the form of three happy, energetic, and amazingly beautiful geniuses, Ilana Sophia, Atara Emma, and Noam Zev Cooper. And yes, I am allowed to be effusive and over the top, since they are my grandkids.

I have also been inspired by Rabbi Solomon and Sarah Wahrman, of blessed memory, both of whom published memoirs of their European childhoods and their Holocaust nightmares and survival. My father-in-law was a scholar and author who contributed greatly to the field of halakha, Jewish law. They were people of strength and substance, courage and conviction, who raised three fine sons. Jack and Fagie Wahrman and Chaim Dov and Breindy Wahrman have been caring and supportive sisters- and brothers-in-law through good as well as challenging times. I also thank two special friends, who are more like family, who are always there for me with encouragement and support, Dorothea Krieger and Peggy Cottrell.

I thank Hunter College of the City University of New York for a first-rate and free undergraduate education only one block from my home. At Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and Sloan-Kettering Institute I benefited greatly from the mentorship of Dr. Aaron Bendich, a renowned biochemist, and Dr. Leonard Augenlicht, who was a young and enthusiastic role model for me. He is now a highly accomplished biomedical scientist, who has contributed tremendously to our understanding of the molecular biology of cancer. I have received tremendous support from current and past colleagues at William Paterson University, in particular, those who worked with me on research projects: Professors Corey Basch, Eileen Gardner, Jaishri Menon, Gurdial Sharma, Joseph Spagna, and Jean Werth. Patricia Bush, Mukesh Sahni, Susan Sgro, and Michael Wyrwa have also provided helpful guidance. I thank Professor Robert Chesney for advice in microbiology when I launched a new research program, and for his critical review of this manuscript. My students who worked diligently on various microbiology projects include: Melanie Colon, Samantha Deceglie, Shamil Javed, Karina Kuruvilla, Brianna McSweeney, Brian Nelson, Shalaka Paranjpe, Jigna Patel, Henry Raab, Peter Rogers, Khushnuma Sabavala, Jay Shah, and Raahi Upadhyay. I received helpful input on religious ritual for this book from Joseph Spagna, Denise Liberty, and Nathan Lewis.

The administrators at William Paterson University continue to be motivating and supportive of research and scholarship by providing resources and release time. I thank President Kathleen Waldron, Provost Warren Sandmann, Dean Kenneth Wolf, Biology Chairperson David Slaymaker, and former Chair Lance Risley for their support and commitment to faculty and student research.

I thank my superb editor, Phyllis Deutsch, who is patient and encouraging; copyeditor Elizabeth Forsaith for polishing and clarifying the text; and the rest of the staff at University Press of New England/ForeEdge, who produce an impressive array of amazing books. I am grateful to my agent, Joseph Spieler, for his valuable guidance and advice. I owe a debt of gratitude to Rebecca Boroson, retired editor of the New Jersey Jewish Standard, who was a tremendous force in molding me as a science correspondent, and I thank Joanne Palmer, current editor, for producing a fine newspaper that I am proud to be a part of.

I am at the point in life where I can synthesize many of my personal and professional life experiences into a story that teaches, from many perspectives, how to live a safer life by washing hands. I hope that my passion for hand hygiene leads to a better appreciation of science and health and a world that is safer and healthier. I express regrets for any errors, omissions, or misstatements. Now I respectfully advise you to go wash your hands.

MZW, August 2015

Handwashing Habits, Hygiene, and Health

Despite all that we have learned from our parents and teachers, hygienic practices, including handwashing, can vary from person to person. Some people are scrupulous hand washers and others not so much. We like to believe that everyone washes their hands after using the bathroom and before eating, but research tells us otherwise. We can control our own behaviors and actions with regard to hygiene, but we cannot pretend that we know what other people do. We cannot impose our views on others (except perhaps our own small children) regarding even the simple act of handwashing. In fact, most of useven dedicated germiescan still learn a thing or two about hygiene and can do better with regard to cleanliness. Even more so, people who have given the issue little thought may be able to learn a lot more about how to stay healthy in a germ-filled world. Because we are all interconnected, we are affected by how other people handle health care and hygiene.