Hand Washing Water Temperature

To be honest, I always use the hot setting. I like washing my hands with hot water, and on the odd occasion that the restroom that I'm using actually has any hot water available, I'm usually finished washing up before it even gets remotely warm.

When I got into cooking last year I read Alton Browns book on kitchen gear which included a chapter on how to wash your hands.

He recommends doing it with the hotest water you can stand. Which is pretty much what I do now.

Here's the CDC's discussion of food standards, which says to use warm water:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/foodwater.asp

Here's their hand hygene guide which doesn't mention water temp.

I'm with John. I usually turn on just the hot, and if it actually gets hot, I'll adjust it. I end up actually needing to wash my hands sometimes at work (as opposed to just doing it because you are supposed to) and I'll definately adjust it for that.

Quite frankly, unless you are using hot water and soap, there really isn't much of a point to washing your hands. You aren't killing any pathogens with cold water, with or without soap.

I'm not a biologist, but my intuition tells me that evne "hot" water isn't nearly hot enough to actually kill viruses or bacteria. My impression is that it's the soap that does most of the work, and most soap is antibacterial these days, so it doesn't just wash dirt off your hands, it also kills germs.

Maybe look up how soap interacts with cold or hot water. I think I remember that soap works better in hotter water. Hotter water cleans better, and the rubbing doesn't kill germs, it washes them off. I also remember that drying your hands takes off many germs too.

LT

Hot water melts oils, including the oils that your skin naturally secretes. Most of the bacteria that you want to kill live in that oil, and the dirt that you want to get rid of is stuck to the oil. Soap is designed to pull the oil off your skin, but some heat to soften the oil helps, too.