Idea being ‘too clean’ leads to poor health is a myth, experts claim

Public health officials are calling for an end to the myth that being “too clean” in the home is bad for health.

A new report from the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) says adults and children should get outside to play with family, friends and pets in order to build healthy immunity, but this should not get in the way of good hygiene in the home.

Experts said people should worry less about cleaning floors, walls and furniture, and concentrate more on surfaces, food preparation, washing dishcloths and putting bedding and towels on a 60C wash.

Such simple measures can cut down the risk of spreading serious infections such as listeria, E coli or norovirus and add up to a “targeted hygiene” approach, they said.

The new RSPH report aims to tackle the idea that being “too clean” is bad for health and causes allergies in children.

It said the “hygiene hypothesis” popular in the late 1980s, which suggested that rising rates of allergies had an underlying cause of “over cleanliness” and called for children to be exposed to a wide range of potentially harmful microbes, has now been scientifically refuted.

It said what people actually need is diverse exposure to microbes that are mostly harmless – such as through playing outside – rather than infections from harmful microbes.

Lifestyle habits, such as keeping children indoors and an increasing use of antibiotics, are more to blame than cleanliness for keeping children from getting the exposure they need, it added.

The report calls for people to adopt a “targeted hygiene” approach, such as cleaning surfaces, utensils and hands thoroughly during and after food preparation, including after handling raw meat.

People should also wash hands with soap and water before eating with fingers, after using the toilet, after coughing, sneezing and blowing noses and after handling and laundering dirty clothing and household linens.

Good handwashing is also essential after playing with pets, feeding them and clearing their waste, and after putting out bins.