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Keyboards Are Disgusting
fredr1k writes "
A test carried out by Pegasus Lab on account for Swedish magazine PC För alla showed that a normal PC keyboard was infected by more bacteria than a normal toilet seat. More specific it contained 33000 bacteria per square centimeter, compared to 130 on a ordinary toilet seat. The tests also showed occurrence of up to 3100 fungi per square centimeter." Also note that unless you read Swedish, you still have plausible deniability when asked to windex yours.
The parts that touch the toilet seat are mostly shielded from bacteria by two layers of cloth.
Fingers, on the other hand, frequently stray to the places where bacteria flourish.
People often make this comparison: "XXX is dirtier than a toilet seat!"
Very bad comparison. Toilet seats are generally disinfected quite often, so should in fact be pretty clean. Keyboards are not disinfected.
Many things are dirtier than a toilet seat. Especially things that get fingers on them all day long. Engage brain and it all becomes quite obvious.
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
in the long term.
A recent study showed that kids who lived on the farm in Germany (or some other European country) grew up with stronger immune systems than those who lived in the cities.
That means the study suggests that they're more resistant to viruses and bacteria than the city folk.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I think it just shows the fact that most bacteria are harmless. Freaks of cleanliness should especially take notice, there's a balance to be struck between chemical agents and bacterial activity. I'd wager that the body is more tolerant to bacteria than it is to Spick&Span.
good thing us geeks are protected from the teeming microbial masses by a thin film of antibacterial (aka cool ranch) dorito shavings and cheeto sprinklin's that reside in our keyboards.
After a while people tend to suffer from 'statistics burn-out' and become innumerate.
I think a taste test (and a tetanus shot) should be an option.
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As far as I'm concerned, the *world* is filthy, and millions of years of evolution have allowed us to live healthily ( mostly ) in it. It's part of being alive. And the more we're exposed, the stronger we are for it.
I'm not surprised that keyboards are filthy, but frankly, when I was a kid wandering around in creeks hunting crawfish, climbing trees, etc etc I never got sick, and I (almost) never get sick as an adult.
We *need* this exposure. I'm worried for children growing up in sterilized environments today.
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
Careful with the air compressor. Gentle puffs blow out dust, a blast can wedge dust, crumbs, boogers etc. deep into contacts and other places where they might do more damage than if just left alone. Just speaking from experience here :(
90% of the wealth is in 2% of the pockets. Bummer to be in the majority.
I don't know about laptop keyboards, but for my desktop I use ~£3 keyboards from Dabs and replace them after a year or two.
I used to go through the whole thing of using wipes, cotton wool buds, alcohol-based cleaner, compressed air and tweezers. But you know, I spent more money on that than it cost to get a new keyboard, not to mention the amount of time I wasted, and even at the end it wouldn't be as clean as a new one.
Not the most environmentally friendly method, but at least I have a lot of spare keyboards.
Over-use of anyibacterials encourages the spread of resistance, and may even lead to conditions such as asthma.
of course, biting monkeys is not to everyone's taste - Konrad Lorenz
The reason is no mystery. My 6 months old keybord does not stink. My toilet seat after two weeks of not cleaning it, on the other hand...
Why are people surprised by findings such as this one?
Obviously the toilet seat has less germs. Everyone associates "grossness" with germs in their head. Going to the bathroom is gross, and fecal matter is gross, therefore it must be full of germs and bacteria. Not the case, in fact, quite the opposite.
There are more bacteria on your face, more bacteria on your hands and more bacteria in your mouth than your buttocks in most cases.
Just put in the context of contact with the germ filled world you can see by common sense why this would be true:
Your rear end gets washed and then has very little exposure to germs. Your hands and face are out there all day making contact with all types of bacteria.
So I guess my point is that you can't say keyboards are dirty just because they are more bacteria filled than a toilet seat, because I don't even think a door knob holds up to that standard.
Now common sense would also side with keyboards being rather bacteria filled, but I hardly would consider that comparison to be an indicator.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
Actually, what you state has some scientific backing.
:)
I heard it on the news last year that some German (?) scientist recommended eating nose mucous. As he stated, the nose is the only organ of the body that for the most part does not have a self-cleaning mechanism. The purpose of the mucous is believed to be (among other things) the entrapment of bacteria and other undesirables that would otherwise have entered the body.
By picking, we provide the nasal passages with a method of cleaning to provide new mucous and by -- ugh -- eating we introduce the bacteria into our systems that were otherwise trapped, thus allowing our immune systems to learn about it and, more importantly, learn to defeat it.
I actually discussed this a few days later with a friend of mine who's an Emergency Medical Technician and was a medic in the Army Reserves. After hearing the doctor's explanation, he agreed that it all makes sense. The immune system can't practice its self-defense if it doesn't have any targets to destroy.
Personally, I'll take my chances with the keyboard instead.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Does the seat stink, or does the bowl? Seriously, the only thing that should be touching the seat is butt cheeks -- the nasty stuff goes through the hole and into the bowl. And since (for guys) the seat goes up for a pee, the seat justs needs a clorox wipe once in awhile to keep it clean. The bowl on the other hand...
I can see why a keyboard can get so many germs. There's no telling where those hands have been, and anything on the fingers ends up on the keys.
Beware of Sleestak
Ya, I'll never understand the people who go to take shit and first wipe the seat down and then put one of the covers on... and when done they walk right out of the bathroom without washing their hands. Makes me think they eat with their asses.
And no I'm not spying on people in the bathroom, just taking a shit in the other stall.
They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
The mystery isn't that everything else is so dirty, it's that toilet seats are so clean!
No mystery there at all.
Hands have more bacteria on them than asses. The hand is, by far, the dirtiest part of the human body, because it's the part we touch everything with.
This is true even for obsessive-compulsive hand-washers who use lots of anti-bacterial products. They just have tougher bacteria on their hands.
So something which you smear your hands on all the time (like a keyboard) is going to be dirtier than something you sit on with your bare ass (like a toilet seat.) I agree with the granparent post that this is all very, very old news.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Not to mention the fact that all that food and drink consumed over the keyboard provide a nice, nutricious environment for bacteria.