Go wash your hands. I mean it – go wash them well before you come back touch anything and read this. You might also want to put on plastic gloves and invest in a gallon of hand sanitizer. You’ll thank me later because I’m going to reveal the dirtiest surfaces around the house, the office, and in public – and what they may contain.
The consumer product company Kimberly-Clark recently released a report about the dirtiest everyday surfaces in America. They compiled their data after testing 3,000 surfaces and 5,000 people across six major U.S. cities with swabs, looking for the presence of ATP, or Adenosine Triphosphate, the energy-beholden molecule present in every organic cell. Once the swabs were analyzed, the presence of ATP signals that the surface was somehow contaminated by human beings, animals, or bacteria, yeast, or mold.
As a general rule, an ATP count of 300 or more indicates the surface is a high risk for illness transmission, and in need of some serious cleaning. An ATP count of 100 or more means the surface could use a disinfecting but not necessarily in the serious risk category – yet.
The dirtiest public surfaces:
71% of gas pump handles
68% of mailbox handles
43% of escalator rails
41% of ATM buttons
40% of parking meters
35% of crosswalk buttons
35% of vending machine buttons
The dirtiest surfaces at the office:
75% of break room sink faucet handles
48% of microwave door handles
27% of computer keyboards
26% of refrigerator door handles
23% of water fountain buttons
21% of vending machine buttons
Surfaces at the office with readings over 100 that could use disinfecting:
91% of break room sink faucet handles
80% of microwave door handles
69% of keyboards
69% of refrigerator door handles
53% of water fountain buttons
51% of all computer mice
51% of all desk phones
48% of all coffee pots and dispensers
43% of vending machine buttons
Money
Think about how many people touch a $1 bill, and its never cleaned. A study by the Health Commissioner of New York found 135,000 bacteria on one bill!
Light switches
The average light switch in a high traffic home or office area has about 217 bacteria/square inch.
Computer keyboard
A British consumer group conducted a study in 2009, randomly swabbing 33 computer keyboards. Four were deemed health hazards and one even had more bacteria than the average toilet!
Cell phone
If you’re like most people you put your cell phone up to your face all day, every day, and rarely clean it. A study from the UK shows that cell phones are basically petri dishes, with tens of thousands of germs and bacteria. A shocking 1 in 6 cell phones were contaminated with fecal matter!
Toilet seat
Studies show that the average toilet seat has 295 bacteria per square inch. That may sound dirty, but it’s nowhere near the 3.2 million germs and bacteria in the toilet bowl!
Shopping cart
Most of us grab a cart and zoom through the grocery store without a second thought, but a University of Arizona health study found that shopping carts were loaded with more germs, bacteria, saliva, and fecal matter than even escalators, public telephones, and public bathrooms.
Remote control
Your TV’s remote control is also one of the dirties surfaces in your home, as you touch the keys every day and often transmit food, pathogens, saliva, or any other matter on your hands. Remotes have been reported to commonly contain MRSA, VRE and SARS bacteria.
Bathtub
Ironically, the bathtub is the place you go to get clean, but it’s often a transmitter of nasty stuff like staph infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, septicemia, and skin conditions. In fact, bacteria found in your bathtub’s drain was more of a hazard than your toilet bowl!
Kitchen sink
Like the bathtub, we think of the kitchen sink as a highly used and very clean area, but it may be the dirtiest place in the house, with up to 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the kitchen sink drain, as well as around the faucet handles.
Kitchen sponge
We wipe the sponge over our kitchen surfaces to clean, but what you’re often doing is spreading around bacteria at an alarming rate. Sponges are always wet and have so many micro-crevices, breeding grounds for bacteria. An easy fix is to throw the sponge in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Door knobs
Door knobs are one of the dirtiest surfaces in the home, office, or in public. Human hands are the dirtiest part of the body and every time we touch a door knob, we are spreading germs and bacteria and infecting ourselves.
So how do you combat the filth of these common surfaces? Doctors recommend washing your hands frequently with plenty of soap and water to stay healthy, wiping down surfaces with anti-bacterial wipes, and avoid touching your hands to your face or your eyes. You can also only carry $100 bills, which contain far fewer bacteria!
Aren’t you glad I told you to go wash your hands?
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