There are lots of times when I could really use an alarm to get me to remember things, but remembering to wash my hands in a public bathroom isn’t one of them. Statistically speaking, there’s still a pretty good chance that it’s a problem for some people, so Safeguard has built the first hand washing-shaming soap dispenser alarm.
If you thought you were serious about personal hygiene, check out their dramatic video for the alarm. They take bathroom cleanliness very seriously:
Even if you flush the toilet with your foot and don’t think touching your bits is a good enough reason to wash your hands, it’s hard to avoid all of the germ-harboring surfaces you need to touch when using a public bathroom. So, the Germ Alarm will let out an obnoxious sound when you exit a bathroom stall and continue until you press the soap dispenser button.
Man, that’s got to be annoying for the janitorial staff where these things have been installed.
There’s a tiny flaw in the logic here, though: those who have made a conscious decision not to wash their hands can either brave the shame and just let the alarm sound as they leave, or they can just push the soap dispenser button without washing and leave a pile of slippery soap on the ground.
Is there a “you should probably go shower in acid and burn your clothes” alarm for when I slip on that soap and land on my back on a public bathroom floor? I guess we’ll find out if the Germ Alarm ever makes it out of the Philippines, where they’ve already been installed in some bathrooms.
(via Gizmodo, image via Stacey Manalac on YouTube)
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