Q. Is the fluid that drips from the nose of some elderly considered like the mucous from ones nose that requires washing of hands when one touches it before one can recite brochos and learn Torah?

A. Horav Dovid Pam Shlit”a pointed to the Remah Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 92: 7) that prohibits touching the dirty (tzoas) secretions from the nose or ears while a person is davening or learning Torah.

However Mishna Berura (ibid 30) quotes that Hagr’a is lenient and so does Shaarei Teshuva in the name of Mor Uketzia.

One must add that the fluid described is different from the regular mucous inside the nose, as will be b’n iy’H explained.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit’a and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.