“[The priests] shall teach my people to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and make known to them the difference between the clean and the unclean” (Ezekiël 44,23)
We all take a shower, wash our hands and brush our teeth regularly. But did you know that the biggest source of diseases, infections and food poisoning is sitting right underneath your hands right now?
If you are reading this post at your computer, take a look at your keyboard and your mouse. Do you see colored sediments on the keys or the mouse buttons? When you shake the keyboard, do you hear breadcrumbs and other dirt underneath the keys? You are in danger!
Dirtier than a toilet seat
Research shows that computer keyboards are often dirtier than a toilet seat: Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson examined office keyboards and discovered that they all carried a shocking amount of bacteria and germs.
One keyboard was so dirty that Wilson ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned. It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria – five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time!
Women and men
Research by the University of Arizona found even dirtier keyboards: some had 400 times more bacteria than the average office toilet seat.
This research also found that, compared to men, on average women have three to four times the amount of germs in, on and around their work area.The causes:
- Users eating lunch at their desk, with crumbs encouraging the growth of bacteria.
- Poor personal hygiene, such as not washing hands after going to the toilet.
- Sweat and dust forming thin layers of dirt on the keyboard and mouse.
- People sneezing and coughing while they are typing.
The solutions:
- Shake dust, hairs and breadcrumbs out of the keyboard on a regular basis. A vacuum cleaner might also come in handy.
- Wipe the keyboard with lightly dampened cloth.
- Desinfect the keyboard and the mouse with cleaning alcohol (don’t forget the mouse cord!). Use Q-tips for the space between the keys.
- Keep the rest of your desk clean too; dust and dirt on your desk can easily transport onto your computer equipment via your hands.
- Wash your hands before you work at the computer
- Don’t sneeze on your computer, use paper tissues
- I don’t recommend putting your keyboard in the dish washer. Unless you have a dishwasher proof keyboard (they exist!), the hot water and soap might damage the keyboard.
If all the above fails to clean your keyboard, buy a new one! It’s cheaper to buy a new keyboard than to cure an infection or food poisoning.
That’s funny.. I just wrote about the same thing based upon your earlier twitter.
The extra bit I added is the “Why don’t we do it on our sleeves” video.
How many people sneeze on their hands then keep right on typing!
Remind me sometime to tell ya’ll sometime about things I’ve found at desks when doing computer forensics. Monstrously ICK!
I just cleaned my Logitech wireless desktop. I do that on a regular basis. This is how I do it.
I turn it upside down and loosen all screws.
Then I remove the top from the bottom (containing the print board).
The dirty top part is being washed in the dishwasher or by hand
I thorougly dry it and if I am convinced it’s totally dry, I reassemble my keyboard again. It types like a new one now without any junk stuck between my keys.
I have to write a blog post about this.
hey Father,
I wanna thank you so much for explaining about subscribing and about Flock in your podcast today. I use Flock for one day now and it’s so cool..
Your podcasts are amazing but however …
My keyboard… I just cleaned between the keys and I found sooo many hairs from myself.. The only problem is I can’t clean it like you because I have a laptop and it will not work that way.. sometimes with other keyboards you can get the keys from the board but then my laptop is broken so no good idea for me..
anyway
thank you!
and keep up the work you do!
Pretty scary. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this. I immediately cleaned my keyboard, mouse and phone on my desk at work. I work at a hospital and forwarded the information to our infection control nurse which she appreciated. She emailed back to tell me to also clean my cellphone and to all the ladies out there in cyberspace, clean your purse! Imagine all the places you set your purse during the day and then place it on the counter or table when you get home. I keep the Clorox wipes handy to swipe all these things.
Hi, Fr. R,
I remember reading a similar article one to two years ago regarding this, and it kind of makes sense. However, what kind of makes me not worry about this is that we all are surrounded by germs: the air we breathe, the ground we walk/run on, the things we hold, grasp, use to work with, you name it, there are many germs everywhere. Remember we also have those good bacteria on our skin and inside our intestines, and they are important to our resistance against those pathogenic ones. Without them, disease-causing fungi and bacteria will be all over in our body. Don’t forget to wash your hands and do not touch your face, mouth, and eyes if you think you have dirty hands, are good recommendations to practice daily.
I was talking to an expert at the Mac store, and he expressed concern about using alcohol-based products on a Mac laptop. It’s for this reason that manufacturers will most likely not come up with antibacterial solutions for computer keyboards.
Washing hands before/after keyboard use is probably the best solution.