Will you ever eat on your desk again?

And you thought you are alone in office on those late nights.

According to a study by University of Arizona germ guru Dr. Charles Gerba. You have plenty of bacteria keeping you company. Where? On your desk!!!

The study, found that paper isn’t all that’s piling up on workstations. In fact, the average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat!!! Yuck!!!

The study found surfaces in personal work areas such as telephones came in as the #1 home for office germs, followed by desks, water fountain handles, microwave door handles and computer keyboards. The area where you rest your hand on your desk has — on average — 10 million bacteria. Surprisingly, toilet seats consistently had the lowest bacteria levels of the 12 surfaces tested in the study.

“We don’t think before eating at our desks, even though the desk has 100 times more bacteria than a kitchen table” Gerba said. “Without cleaning, a small area on your desk or phone can sustain millions of bacteria that could potentially cause illness.”

With more people spending more time at their desks than sleeping on their beds – bacteria has really good company.

Study Highlights

For the study, Gerba and his team separated office workers into two groups. One group used disinfecting wipes to clean their desks, phones and computers; the other did not. Within two days, the wipes users were found to have a 99.9 percent reduction in bacteria levels.

The study team evaluated a variety of office locations, environments and surfaces. Study sites included private offices, cubicles and common work areas in offices located in New York, San Francisco, Tucson and Tampa. A total of 7,000 samples were collected nationwide and analyzed at the University of Arizona laboratories.

Other study highlights: Bacteria levels decreased drastically (99.9%) if surfaces were treated with disinfecting wipes once a day.

Among people who did not use wipes, bacteria levels increased an average of 19-31% on their telephone, computer mouse, keyboard and desktop surfaces throughout a typical workday.

So how do you control this??
So how can workers control the spread of illness-causing bacteria? “One good way to kill bacteria and help stop the spread of germs is to regularly clean your personal workspace,” offered Dr. Gerba. “During the study, we found that using disinfecting wipes can dramatically reduce that number and therefore help reduce your chances of illness.”