Republican senator says restaurants should be able to opt-out of mandatory handwashing

[Skidmore]

Well, I sure as heck wouldn't be going to a restaurant that let me know that its employees were not required to meet basic standards of cleanliness.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/03/1362005/-Republican-senator-says-restaurants-should-be-able-to-opt-out-of-mandatory-handwashing?detail=facebook

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis is not so sure we need laws requiring food service employees to wash their hands:

Tillis made the declaration at to the Bipartisan Policy Center, at the end of a question and answer with the audience. He was relaying a 2010 anecdote about his “bias when it comes to regulatory reform.”

“I was having a discussion with someone, and we were at a Starbucks in my district, and we were talking about certain regulations where I felt like ‘maybe you should allow businesses to opt out,’” he said, “as long as they indicate through proper disclosure, through advertising, through employment literature, or whatever else.”

Restaurants can just opt-out and let the free market take care of business after word spreads of unsanitary conditions. Never mind that a lack of hand washing by food service employees accounts for the vast majority of food contamination:

More....

[on point]

1. Why are these idiots in such a hurry to return to dark ages?

[hifiguy]

10. In the Dark Ages the church ran everything.

No troublesome secular laws. The kings made war, the church ran everything else. Fundy paradise - war and stoopidity for ever and ever. rAmen.

[Runningdawg]

2. Here is a idea

why don't we let health care workers opt out of washing their hands? Or maybe we could just say we sterilized the surgical instruments?

[uppityperson]

3. W.T.F? eom

[Pathwalker]

4. I got Cryptosporidium at an ARBY'S because an employee

was too lazy to to wash his shitty hands. I was very sick for months. This restaurant was closed down because the employee was allowed to continue working despite making more than 30 people sick. Yeah, what could go wrong?

[LondonReign2]

5. I assumed this was an Onion-esque riff on the anti-vaxxers

Sadly, Republicans and parody are indistinguishable.

[stevenleser]

6. I did too. I was certain it had to be.

Unfriggingbelievable.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

7. Don't blame me, I voted for Kay Hagan...

although she was no great prize.

Tillis, Foxx, Ellmers, Burr... the North Carolina Brain Trust.

Enjoy, America!

[KamaAina]

14. Ellmers actually stood up to leadership on the abortion thing!

[pipi_k]

8. Pretty pointless

to assume that even in restaurants that require employees to wash their hands after using the rest room that any of them actually are.

I mean, how do we really know for sure?


that's not to say I would be OK about going to a restaurant where employees are not required to wash their hands, because I wouldn't be.


Even then, it's still possible to wash one's hands but still end up with filth on them.

I have my own handwashing routine for public bathrooms that involves using a paper towel to turn off the faucet, another one to dry my hands, and another one to use on the doorknob.

So unless someone is avoiding someone else's filth on the doorknob/lever (deposited there when a non-handwasher touched it), that person isn't really washing his hands. IMO.

[Dawson Leery]

9. Many around here are in agreement that there is no difference between the two parties.

This is just another example that proves them wrong.

We jackals like this the Connecticut legislature too.

[lpbk2713]

11. Dumbass really has to have it explained to him.

That "word of mouth reputation" has to start somewhere. IOW so many people have to get sick that it becomes a widespread topic of conversation. It's hard to believe someone this stupid can be elected to public office.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. So this guy likes the flavor of pee in his food or drink?

Sometimes when a man is holding it and shaking it after relieving himself, some drops might get on his hands. Hand washing after every trip to the lavatory is a must.

So in watching the movie Fight Club and Tyler Durden peeing in soups and deserts, this guy would say that the free market can take care of business, especially if he finds a pubic hair in his soup.

[KamaAina]

13. Very well. Let's start with the Senate cafeteria.