Researchers Found That Desks Are Three Times Dirtier Than Toilet Seats, And Keyboards Harbour As Many Germs As Kitchen Bins

It’s where people spend eight hours a day working, eating and drinking, so desks are three times more contaminated than toilet seats.

A study found the average keyboard harbours as numerous germs as a kitchen bin while a computer mouse is filthier than a typical door mat.

Swabs were taken from ten of each item at offices across the UK and then compared with contaminated household objects.

The average desk had almost 21,000 germs per square inch, a keyboard generally harbours 3,295 germs, while for a mouse it was 1,676, and office phones were home to more than 25,000 germs.

Karim Samani, managing director of cleaning business TechDisinfect, said that desks and office items could be up to four times more contaminated than a toilet seat because people were spending so much time with them.

He said people tend to eat and drink at their desks, never thinking about cleaning up afterwards, and that workers also don’t tend to give serious care to disinfecting regularly.

He added that viruses, germs and bacteria can be transferred about the home extremely easily, but our workplaces are potentially a much bigger threat and that everything from coffee cups to keyboards can harbour infection.

He said that it’s not just high-traffic communal areas that could be carrying a virus, some viruses can survive on surfaces such as metals and plastics for up to a day, meaning everyday IT equipment, such as laptops, tablets, phones, keyboards, mice, printers et cetera, could be hotspots for transmission.

A spokeswoman for the website Fasthosts.co.uk, which conducted the research, said that starting a study like this, they wondered if they’d get shocking results and that by comparing toilet seats, doormats and kitchen bins to everyday desk objects, they were surprised to discover just how filthy desks could really be.

She added, that with more employers encouraging and even demanding that employees return to the office full time, or at least in a hybrid setting, this was something businesses should be considering.

The thing is if your body is exposed to germs, then your body becomes resistant to most of these germs. As the saying goes: “You eat a speck of dirt before you die.” And with all this sanitising, it’s of no surprise people get ill, that’s why they want us locked up so that they can destroy our immune system and scare us into withdrawing from society.

This is what improves our immune system. It works by recognising small amounts of nasties and making antibodies so that when you get a bigger dose of whatever nasty, it identifies it and leaps into action. A bit like the Tory party!

And hasn’t science already taught us that exposure to germs i.e bacteria and viruses are essential to building up resistance?

On the other hand, you wouldn’t take a deep dive down your toilet with a spoon because there’s a limitation to what you should be exposed to! But it just goes to prove that the millions of us out there aren’t dead because of some terrible disease because we have this built-in lurgy killer called our immune system, but of course, we will always have people that cry ‘woe is me’ every time a dark cloud passes in front of the sun.

Being exposed to germs around the home and at workplaces is what keeps the immune system on its guard and working to protect us, but not being exposed to germs and being in sterile conditions means that when we are exposed to any germs, it hits us like a steamroller.