The Office

Did you know that according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Arizona, the phone is the No. 1 germiest item in a typical office environment, followed (in decreasing order) by the desktop, the keyboard, the mouse, the fax machine, the photocopier, and interestingly enough, in last place is the toilet seat. Parenthetically, the average toilet seat has just 49 germs per square inch.

According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona, a lawyer’s desk averages 900 bacteria per square inch, which is less than a teacher’s desk, which harbors as many as 17,000 bacteria per square inch. The average desk worker's telephone had about 25,000 germs per square inch, according to the same study. The study found that on average, every 60 seconds, a working adult touches as many as 30 objects. The study advises office workers to regularly wipe down the desktop, phone, and keyboard with disinfectant wipes or use a spray disinfectant designed for hard surfaces.

Bacteria and viruses are the microscopic organisms – otherwise known as germs -- that are responsible for causing and transmitting illness and disease. These microbes are so small, that according to the American Society for Microbiology, if the smallest of all microbes was the size of a baseball, an average bacterium would then be the size of the pitcher's mound, and just one of the millions of cells that make up your body would be the size of the ballpark!

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