Review by Monty C. 4/6/14

Hand-washing offers great rewards in terms of preventing illness. Adopting this habit can play a major role in protecting your health.

Help children stay healthy by encouraging them to wash their hands frequently. Wash your hands with your child to show him or her how it's done. To prevent rushing, suggest washing hands for as long as it takes to sing the "Happy Birthday" song twice. If your child can't reach the sink on his or her own, keep a step stool handy.

Jason Howland: These common surfaces aren't just gross. They can be a vehicle to spread cold and flu viruses, and make you sick. Dr. Poland offers these suggestions.

Gregory Poland, M.D.: First, keep your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth. Second is either wash your hands with soap and water, or use hand sanitizer.

It's generally best to wash your hands with soap and water. Over-the-counter antibacterial soaps are no more effective at killing germs than is regular soap.

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Be sure to supervise young children using alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Swallowing alcohol-based sanitizers can cause alcohol poisoning. Store the container safely away after use.

Hand Washingarea signage

Frequent hand-washing is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick and spreading illness. Find out when and how to wash your hands properly.

Get your own copy of the sign. Drawn for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey by Daniel Reeve, calligrapher at the 3Foot7 Art Department.

Hand washingsteps

Ian Roth: Children often are taught at a young age to wash their hands — before eating and after using the restroom. It's an easy and effective way to stay healthy and avoid spreading disease.

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Review by Vita R. 4/2/17

Wash Hands Sign meaning

As you touch people, surfaces and objects throughout the day, you accumulate germs on your hands. You can infect yourself with these germs by touching your eyes, nose or mouth, or spread them to others. Although it's impossible to keep your hands germ-free, washing your hands with soap and water frequently can help limit the transfer of bacteria, viruses and other microbes.

Review by Robert J. 9/28/15

Hand-washing is an easy way to prevent infection. Understand when to wash your hands, how to properly use hand sanitizer and how to get your children into the habit.

Hand washingSign printable

Your sign comes packaged in a plastic bag inside triple layers of rigid corrugated card to protect it on its journey to you.

Review by CM B. 10/27/18

Gregory Poland, M.D.: People go to the bathroom and they run their fingers under the water. Well, that does nothing. And, then they grab the dirty faucet, and they touch the dirty handle on the way out of the bathroom.

Increasingly irritated by the attention attracted by the celebrations of his eleventy-first birthday, Bilbo Baggins is forced to take drastic measures (in Hobbit terms) and asks Frodo to hang a sign on the gate: 'No Admittance Except on Party Business'.

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HandWash Sign Board

Review by Daniela H. 6/16/15

Review by Alejandro A. 9/4/15

Review by Brett H. 9/18/14

Hand washingposter printable PDF

From New Line Cinema, Peter Jackson and Warner Bros. comes J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, brought to the big screen in an epic trilogy. Weta Workshop was thrilled to return to Middle-earth once again, contributing design, specialty props and specialty costumes to all three films

Review by Cindy M. 12/15/21

Gregory Poland, M.D.: So you wash your hands while singing happy birthday to yourself, you get between the fingers, the fingertips, the thumb, you turn the water off with a paper towel, and you open the door to leave with a paper towel and dispose of the paper towel. That's how you wash your hands — ideally, with warm, soapy water.

Our authentic prop replicas and collectibles are created by the very same artists who have worked on the three films, so effectively they come straight from Middle-earth.

Gregory Poland, M.D., Vaccine Research Group Mayo Clinic: Bathroom faucets, door handles, escalator rails, computer terminals, anything that is commonly touched by the public.

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Alcohol-based hand sanitizers, which don't require water, are an acceptable alternative when soap and water aren't available. If you use a hand sanitizer, make sure the product contains at least 60% alcohol. Follow these steps:

Ian Roth: Dr. Poland says that in public washrooms there are often more bacteria on those faucets than in the toilet water. So, next time you’re at the sink…