A new study has found that cool water is as effective as hot for hand washing and removes the same amount of harmful bacteria, according to an article on the Infection Control website.

In a Rutgers-New Brunswick study, published in the Journal of Food Protection, high levels of a harmless bacteria were put on the hands of 21 participants multiple times over a six-month period before they were asked to wash their hands in 60-degree, 79-degree or 100-degree water temperatures using 0.5 ml, 1 ml or 2 ml volumes of soap.

"This study may have significant implications towards water energy, since using cold water saves more energy than warm or hot water," said one of the study's authors. "Also we learned even washing for 10 seconds significantly removed bacteria from the hands."

The study also suggests that while there is no difference between the amount of soap used, more work needs to be done to understand exactly how much and what type of soap is needed to remove bacteria.

Read the article.