Workstations 'Dirtier Than Toilets' 568
hettb writes "How often do you clean your keyboard and surrounding work area? A recent study (also discussed here) found that computer workstations harbour 400 times more health threatening bacteria than the average toilet seat. If you're anything like me, spending most of both professional and personal time in front of your computer, this is sobering news. "
Getting Personal! (Score:4, Informative)
At school I remember some old ADM keyboards that had slippery keys, with much blackness just aside from the contact points. Shudder!
Those were public terminals, though.
I've noticed that keyboard cleanliness really depends on the person. Not whether they dump coffee and cheetos on them, but whether their hands are particularly heavy sources of oil.
Who said that a toilet seat is diirty (Score:2, Informative)
Un-Hygienic Data on the London Underground
During Autumn of 2000, a team of scientists at the Department of Forensics at University College London removed a row of passenger seats from a Central Line tube carriage for analysis into cleanliness. Despite London Underground's claim that the interior of their trains are cleaned on a regular basis, the scientists made some alarming discoveries:
This is what was found on the surface of the seats:
* 4 types of hair sample (human, mouse, rat, dog)
* 7 types of insect (mostly fleas, mostly alive)
* vomit originating from at least 9 separate people
* human urine originating from at least 4 separate people
* human excrement
* rodent excrement
* human semen
When the seats were taken apart, they found:
* the remains of 6 mice
* the remains of 2 large rats
* 1 previously unheard of fungus
It is estimated that by holding one of the armrests, you are transferring to your body the natural oils and sweat from as many as 400 different people. It is estimated that it is generally healthier to smoke five cigarettes a day than to travel for one hour a day on the London Underground. It is far more hygienic to wipe your hand on the inside of a recently flushed toilet bowl before eating, than to wipe your hand on a London Underground seat before eating. It is estimated that within London, more work sick-days are taken because of bugs picked up whilst traveling on the London Underground than for any other reason (including alcohol).
Re:Who said that a toilet seat is diirty (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Getting things out of proportion (Score:2, Informative)
Re:cooool (Score:2, Informative)
I have no clue if he was right, but I always figured he knew more about the topic than me...
Marketing scam for sanitizing wipes (Score:5, Informative)
The bacteria in someone's other excretions - especially saliva, feces and the delightful sexual juices - are potentially infectious. Blood is more likely to contain viruses (since blood borne bacteria generally kill you stone dead). Unless the other person has a staph infection on their fingertips, the bacteria on their keyboard are not. Even the infectious stuff in snot, which often ends up on people's fingertips, is also (usually) viral and, in any case, generally killed by being dried out.
The fact is - most of the organisms that remain infectious after being dried out live in your scat.
Whatever the bacteria count on a desk, I'd recommend eating off of one over eating off a toilet, which is likely to harbor some small number of bacteria (or other parasites) that favor the human digestive tract.
This is not to say that staph infections are not a real problem; especially in hospitals, which (generally) do use disinfectant soap. I am saying that alarm over the bacteria on your desk is premature.
Researchers also separated office workers into two groups: one group used disinfectant wipes to clean their desks, phones and computers; the other group did not.
Reee-lly! What an interesting project. I wonder who funded it? I have some other observations about people who clean their desks with sanitizing wipes, but I'll leave the psychoanalysis to the professionals.
Dr. Gerba has also done work on how anti-bacterial kitchen supplies reduce of risk for disease [state.ok.us] (html courtesy of google [216.239.37.100].) Search the document for "Gerba".
Hell, take a look at his press coverage overall. [google.com]
Re:cooool (Score:5, Informative)
Bacteria can get resistant to antibiotics put there'll always be something antibacterial that'll kill it..
Consider a soap that's 70% ethanol. Just applying that ethanol over bacteria will kill it. Doctors don't use pure ethanol for disinfecting instruments for nothing.
Yes, boicott overuse of antibiotics but definetly do not hesitate to use other means of antibacterial products. Overprotecting your living enviroment is bad because it leads to poor immune system but being rational with this never hurts..
Oh, try taking a small dose of arsenic every day and watch your health detoriate over time.. Everything doesn't make you stronger. That's how they got Napoleon, anyway.
Re:UV-C Sterilizers (Score:5, Informative)
STOP.
While a UV-C (aka shortwave UV, 280-100nm, germicidal) lamp might be safe and effective for things that fit in an enclosed sterilizing chamber, the unit on the web site clearly isn't designed for that. In order to use it on a keyboard, you'd have to defeat the safety interlock and hold it over the keyboard. This does not sound like a good idea.
While your hands are designed to withstand some UV-C exposure before getting hellaciously sunburned, your eyeballs certainly aren't. Exposure to UV-C is a great way to get cataracts, corneal, or retinal burns.
If you were to use this unit as depicted (pointing an unshielded UV-C source at household items), the reflected UV-C (which you can't see, because it's outside the visible spectrum) from these items could eventually cause serious, permanent damage to your eyes.
Furthermore, the type of person to worry about "germs" on their combs, door handles, and phones to the extent of spending $180 for a UVC lamp for regular sterilizations thereof (I'm trying not to say "hypochondriac" :-) is precisely the kind of person likely to overuse such a device and overexpose their eyes to it.
Furthermore, most of the gunk-retaining surfaces in a keyboard are hidden from light. So if you're worried about germs from gunk in your keyboard, a UV light isn't gonna kill everything anyways. Disassemble the keyboard, wash it with good ol' soap and water, dry thoroughly, and reassemble.
And finally, if you still want to fuck with UVC, $130 for a hand-held 4W UVC source is pretty pricy compared to $40 for a comparably-sized EPROM eraser.
Awright, public service mode off. Now for the fun gadget on the page -- looks like a 4W battery-operated blacklight. (You can get a 15W 18" wall-mountable blacklight from Home Despot for the same price, though, which is way more fun, 'cuz it "lights up" the whole room.)
Another funny note about the site linked to by the parent post - the "personal inspection light" the tout is just a blacklight (UV-A) tube.
It works because many of the compounds in piss, puke, and shit, as well as some - but not all - molds, will fluoresce under UV-A. (You pr0n-hounds are safe, jizz doesn't glow under UVA)
If you shine a blacklight on someone's pants and notice big splotches of glowing stuff, it doesn't mean they've pissed themselves recently, it means they poured their laundry detergent onto the load of laundry before adding the water. Most laundry detergents make clothes "whiter" by adding a fluorescent dye. The clothes look drab under normal lighting, but if you go outside, the small amount of UVA in sunlight will make the clothes look "brighter".
Another fun trick to play with blacklights is to wave 'em around monitors and watch the phosphors glow. The old-school Sun 21" monochrome tubes really sing when hit with UVA.
Bottom line: UVA (blacklight) is fun to play with.
UVB and UVC, however, are not to be fscked with.
Bathrooms vs. Kitchens in pathogen department (Score:3, Informative)
See http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arch/9_14_96/bob2.h
Only 400x? (Score:2, Informative)
No comment.
Re:cooool (Score:4, Informative)
Overuse of anti-bacterial products is strongly linked to increased over-sensitivity and allergy to dust, pollen and animals etc.
Live in an anti-bacterial environment for a few years and you'll find that you can't spend much time outside anymore, due to the pollen, car exhausts and parfume/aftershave.
Since people started to move into cities, got higher standards of living, and a much cleaner living area, the number of cases of over-sensitivity to all these things (animals etc.) has rocketed sky high.
I'm not sure it has anything to do with the immune system, as pollen or animal hair or aftershave are not viruses or bacteria.