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Workstations 'Dirtier Than Toilets'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the crumbs-are-a-vital-source-of-nutrition dept.

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. "

4 of 529 comments (clear)

  1. Coming soon... "QWERTY-WIPES" by rot26 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The study, funded by The Clorox Co.

    Hmmm. Imagine that. A company that makes cleaning/germicidal products finds that a common workplace/home device is direly in need of disinfecting. I wonder if we'll be seeing Clorox Key-Wipes any time in the very very very near future?

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    To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
    1. Re:Coming soon... "QWERTY-WIPES" by SecurityGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well that's the interesting thing. They didn't "find that a common workplace/home device is direly in need of disinfecting". They found that it had lots of bacteria. Our non-thinking consumers will rush out to buy disinfectant products because they presume it's a problem. If they want to show anything at all meaningful, they need to correlate bacterial concentration on the keyboard with illnesses. I don't care if my keyboard has bacteria on it, I care if it has bacteria on it that can actually cause me problems.

  2. Re:makes sense by saider · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll bet your mouth has even more germs than your keyboard.

    But really, isn't this what we have immune systems for? If we spent all our time chasing every last germ, we'd end up like Howard Huges or Mr Burns.

    This is obviously the basis for a marketing campaign by the Clorox company.

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    Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
  3. Re:Getting things out of proportion by Ivan+the+Terrible · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's actually even worse than just getting things out of proportion since using germicidal wipes doesn't kill all the bacteria.

    The bacteria that do survive are resistant to the germicide and have an ample food supply (all their competitors were killed off). If any of these newly evolved resistant bacteria are harmful to humans, we now have a problem.

    Hospitals are increasingly fighting infections by bacteria that are resistant to all known drugs. The major cause seems to be antibacterial supplements in chicken and cattle feed.

    So next time you wipe down that counter with Clorox-guaranteed-to-kill-99.9%-of-all-germs, think about how happy the remaining 0.1% of those buggers are going to be, and remember, they do know how to multiply.