Take a bow…or would you rather touch elbows?
Shaking hands to seal a business deal could be a dying practice if scientists have their way.
A virus expert in California suggests we should touch elbows instead – or perhaps even take a bow – to help prevent the spread of germs. However, frequent hand washing could yet be the saviour of the good old-fashioned handshake.
Nathan Wolfe from Stanford University claims that diseases such as stomach bugs, flu and colds can spread readily via skin contact. “We should advocate a safe shake by touching elbows rather than hands,” he says in his book The Viral Storm. “Certainly this would help to decrease the spread of some infectious agents in the same way that sneezing into an elbow, rather than in a hand, does.”
Another suggestion he makes is that we follow the example of the Japanese and bow to our colleagues instead. The Japanese have a long tradition of bowing instead of shaking hands and children are taught how to execute a bow from a young age.
As the cold and flu season gets under way it appears that many people are already avoiding the handshake, with three-quarters of Britons claiming to have reduced the number of times they shake hands.
Meanwhile, infectious disease specialist at Nottingham University Ben Killingley adds: “If people pick up the virus on their nose, tongue or eye they can become infected.” However, he adds that if people wash their hands regularly it will not become necessary to stop shaking hands.
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