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1. The keyboard you’re using right now
Your keyboard can be an incredibly accurate representation of what’s in your nose and your stomach. Of 33 randomly sampled computer keyboards tested by a British consumer group this year, four were dirty enough to be considered a health hazard, and one harbored hundreds of times more bacteria than your average toilet seat. Of course, not everyone’s keyboard is this dirty; contributing factors include not washing your hands after using the bathroom, picking your nose, and eating at your computer (especially at work), as the crumbs left behind tend to become little bacteria factories. Experts recommend regularly swabbing your keyboard with lightly-dampened alcohol wipes on a regular basis — and be sure to shake those cookie crumbs out, too.
2. The kitchen
The way some folks keep their kitchens, it would be more sanitary to prepare dinner in the bathroom. You wouldn’t know they were a health hazard to look at them, but everything from chopping boards and dishcloths to the plastic washing-up bowls they use in the UK and elsewhere can — and often do — harbor an immense amount of food-borne bacteria. Put them all together — knives and a chopping board used to prepare raw chicken or fish in a plastic tub with warm soapy water — and you have almost ideal conditions for the spread of bacteria. Add to that the dishcloth you dry every dish with, which hangs semi-damp over the lip of the sink when not in use, and you’ve got a real kitchen nightmare (as opposed to the Gordon Ramsey kind). The solution? Health experts recommend washing up in the sink itself instead of a plastic tub, washing the sink out with bleach regularly, changing those dishtowels regularly and, ideally, installing a sensor-activated faucet so dirty hands aren’t always touching the tap handles.
3. Men’s wallets
Of the everyday items in your house, one of the most fertile breeding grounds for bacteria is a man’s wallet. You touch everything in it regularly — as do whatever strangers have passed its contents on to you — and it stays in your back pocket, a nice warm place for bugs to breed. (Proximity to one’s booty was not otherwise considered a factor.) But are wallets a more serious menace than salmonella-encrusted kitchen sinks? Researchers at the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene say no: “It is not whether bacteria are present, or how many there are, but what type they are.”
4. Women’s desks
Sorry, ladies. It seems your desks — at home and at work — are often up to 400 times more bacteria-laden than a toilet seat, and 3 to 4 moreso than a man’s desk. A research team at the University of Arizona offered several explanations: first and foremost, that women are more likely to keep snacks in their desk drawers, which promote mold and incubate bacteria like nobody’s business. Secondly, make-up and lotions aid the transfer of bacteria from surface to surface, and more frequent contact with small children — who, let’s face it, can be pretty germy — was also a contributor. “If there’s ever a famine,” one of the researchers said, “the first place I’ll look for food is a woman’s desk.”
Comments (19)
Comment
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Toilet’s are routinely cleaned with bleach, while lots of other things don’t. This is just like the middle school science fair projects that swab household objects and compare what grows in a petri dish compared with a swab from the toilet. Somehow, these always make it to news stories that fail to realize that bathrooms are cleaned with bleach routinely because of the high amounts of bacteria they garner.
I would expect more from Mental_Floss.
posted by PeteRepeat42 on 5-5-2008 at 10:56 am
The fact that we haven’t all died of desk-borne plagues suggests to me that the bacteria involved aren’t doing much more than ensuring that our immune systems get the exercise they need to work properly.
posted by Average Jane on 5-5-2008 at 10:59 am
A lot of attention has also been paid to fast food ice machines. Most of it stems from a young girls science project comparing the presence of bacteria in the ice to the water in the toilet. If you look online there are alot of articles concerning this.
-Seriously though have you ever seen an employee cleaning one of those things.
posted by Greg on 5-5-2008 at 11:14 am
Um, Pete, I think the point is that these things DON’T get cleaned regularly with bleach…and that’s why they’re so dirty. I don’t think the point was to practice amateur-level experiments, but to point out unexpected places that may need to be cleaned more often. Don’t be so harsh! :)
posted by Fruppi on 5-5-2008 at 11:21 am
Thank you for reminding me about the chocolate in my desk drawer!
posted by Miss Cellania on 5-5-2008 at 11:47 am
It’s actually called the Snack File. And one does not merely say ’snack file’, but sings ~*Snack File*~ when referencing it. Right Julia?
posted by Erin M on 5-5-2008 at 1:03 pm
So…if women keep their wallets in their back pockets, would their wallets rank the same nastiness level as men? Or is there something else at play there?
posted by soph on 5-5-2008 at 1:39 pm
The US has become so OBSCESSED with killing germs that we are paranoid about our envrionment. Germs are important to build our immune system so our bodies can fight them off naturally. 3 months in S.E. Asia was an eyeopener when it comes to food safety and toilets/hole – with no handwashing available. I think my husband and I were sick once each during that trip. Of course we did take some hand wipes just in case.
posted by molli on 5-5-2008 at 3:05 pm
I teach art in an elementary school. If anyone did a culture of my crayon baskets/underside of tables, the place would probably be condemned.
The little nose-pirates love to stick their hands in/under there after garnering their hidden treasure. Sure, I do wash things as best I can, but 850 different kids a week is a lot of nastiness in one small area. Needless to say, I have an ~incredible~ immune system after being in there eight years.
posted by snot for teacher on 5-5-2008 at 6:14 pm
Also women talk all the time, usually on the phone at their desk. With all that lip flapping there’s bound to be some spray.
posted by DNA on 5-6-2008 at 1:52 am
xaxaxaxaxa just like me.
regards ooyes.net
posted by website design on 5-6-2008 at 2:47 am
well,each time you clean a toilet it becomes cleaner than a keyboard, and remains so because we hardly ever clean keyboards with strong acids……..if we do so,the keyboard wont last,and if it lasts,there you have a keyboard cleaner than a toilet……………………think ’bout it!
posted by SBNJ on 5-6-2008 at 2:55 am
4 Things in Your House Dirtier Than A Toilet | Deliggit.com
\r\nAfter reading this post, you\’re gonna want to reach for the Purell.\r\nToilet&am
posted by Deliggit.com | The social sites' most interesting urls on 5-6-2008 at 5:25 am
4 Things in Your House Dirtier Than A Toilet…
4 Things in Your House Dirtier Than A Toilet…
posted by Top Stumbles - Best of StumbleUpon on 5-6-2008 at 6:44 am
STUMBLED!
#1 made me think twice about leaving a comment, dont really want to touch this keyboard now.
posted by Geoserv on 5-6-2008 at 6:48 am
The first thing to do is panic!
People need to stop being such bitches when bacteria are concerned. Your immune system NEEDS them to stay active. Young children should be encouraged to eat several handfuls (diaperfuls) of dirt per day. Using excessive antimicrobial cleaning agents ensures that only the most difficult to kill organisms will remain (which are most likely to resist treatment if you get sick). Buried for sensationalism.
posted by WiseWeasel on 5-6-2008 at 1:22 pm
what about ass-bags? they’re pretty dirty and most homes have a dozen or so
posted by Steven Hipkiss on 5-6-2008 at 4:56 pm
Thanks, A very informative article.
posted by Amit Nanda on 5-6-2008 at 11:51 pm
Thanks. This is too good an article.
posted by Amit Nanda on 5-6-2008 at 11:57 pm