13-dirtiest-things-you-touch-every-day

[jai_bhardwaj]

Dirtiest Objects - these are the 10 most common things you touch every day that are filled with dirt and germs making them the least clean objects in your life. Some of these will be very obvious but others may surprise you. The world is changing and there are so many things that seem clean but are really dirty. Nobody likes to get sick and that is why the health care industry is doing so well. Purell and Clorox make the big bucks from selling sanitizing products and this list is not going to make them any poorer. After you see how many things you use every day are dirtier than your toilet seat you may just become obsessive about cleanliness. Either way you will probably be fine. The human body is amazing and it adapts to dirty environments by creating immunity to the bacteria and diseases that try to take over your body. The choice of being clean is yours but check out this list so you know! If you want to get your mind out of the dirt and into the gutter..........

[jai_bhardwaj]

1 MONEY :

Everybody loves money, but nobody loves the germs that comes along with it! Yuck. From the Ralphs cashier to the business executive's office to the homeless man on the street, there's an enormous amount of bacteria on every buckaroo in your pocket. Dr. Darlington, the Health Commissioner of New York, found 135,000 bacteria from washing one bill and 126,000 from another. The way to tackle this problem is easy: wash your hands.

HERE IS A SURVEY ...............

C H I C A G O, May 3

The cash in your pocket may be contaminated with so much bacteria that it could make you sick.

Researchers from the Wright Patterson Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, asked people standing in line at a grocery store checkout and at a high school concession stand to trade a $1 bill from their pocket for a new one. Then the doctors analyzed 68 of those old, worn bills.
Five of the bills contained bacteria that can cause an infection in perfectly healthy people, and 59 of them (that’s 87 percent) were contaminated with bacteria that could cause an infection in anyone with a compromised immune system, such as people with HIV or cancer.

Only four of the bills were relatively clean.

“One-dollar bills are widely used and each is exchanged many times,” said Dr. Peter Ender, one of the study’s authors. “If some are contaminated with bacteria, there is potential to spread these organisms from person to person.”

More Study Needed

So when you hand over the cash, are you giving more of yourself than you intend to? Not necessarily. The study only addresses how much and what kinds of bacteria live on paper money. Another study would be needed to determine whether the money can actually spread the bacteria.

Plus, since the authors only tested 68 bills — there are billions in circulation around the country — the study doesn’t go far enough to prove that as money moves across the country, so do diseases.

Ender says, though, the study does show that paper money is usually full of bacteria, and that a dollar bill could, theoretically, be the magic carpet it rides from one host to another.

But if, in fact, the bacteria can spread on paper money, there's nothing you can really do about it. You can try to keep your hands away from your eyes, nose and mouth — where the bacteria would get into your body — and try to wash your hands often.

[jai_bhardwaj]

2 LIGHT SWITCH :

Somebody's got to do it, and usually it's the last person in the room. So pack up your things quick and get out of there because turning off the light switch in a public area is just about the nastiest task anyone can be assigned to do, besides counting rolls of money (refer to #1). All the itty bitty germs love swirling around on the plastic switch that's touched by millions of dirty fingers over the years add up to about 217 bacteria/square inch. According to a local restroom sanitation glossary, that's what you'd call a common contact point where germs are transmitted. Clorox wipe, anyone?

[jai_bhardwaj]

3 COMPUTER KEYBOARD:

The computer's your friend (except when it freezes on you in the most pivotal moments of life) but its accompanying keyboard is a nemesis thriving with germs. In a study from a British consumer group in 2009, 33 computer keyboards were randomly sampled and out of these tested four were considered a health hazard. One was even discovered to have more bacteria than your average toilet. The only way to clean (or delete) this pile of cooties is to spray the keyboard with a can of compressed air and wipe with a cloth dipped in mild detergent.

[jai_bhardwaj]

4 CELL PHONES :

Forget the dog. Cell phones are a modern (wo)man's best friend. Heck, the average person probably touches, taps, or strokes their or her cell phone more times than they pet their neglected pooch at home. New research from the United Kingdom show that mobile phones are a technological petri dish for tens and thousands of germs, mainly due to the heat that they generate as well as the bacteria it shares with your hands and face. Next time, consider an anti-microbial coating for your phone or frequent anti-bacterial wipe-downs. Or sterile rubber gloves every time you touch or use your phone, always disposing of them in a furnace immediately afterward.

[jai_bhardwaj]

5 TOILET SEATS:


Though the toilet seat has been good to you on many a bad days, its porcelain white surface is party-host to all sorts of diseases and viruses. Statistics show that there are 295 bacteria for every square inch of the cold, smooth surface. Though that's not as bad as the 3.2 million on the toilet bowl, it's still not a place to rest your head on at night - or in the morning.


SOME MORE INFORMATION:

The paper toilet-seat cover can be a guardian angel for the backside, but only if the seat is dry to begin with. When the cover is placed onto a seat that's wet, it ferries bacteria and viruses from the toilet seat up to your bare skin.

The good news is that you're unlikely to contract a disease merely by sitting on a pathogen-covered toilet.

Neither viruses like influenza nor the bacteria responsible for illnesses such as strep throat are dangerous unless they come in contact with the mucus membranes —something easily prevented by washing dirty hands with soap before touching your mouth or eyes (which you do already, right?).

Most sexually transmitted diseases cannot survive once exposed to air (exceptions are the herpes virus, which can live for a few hours, and hepatitis B, which can linger for seven days). To catch a disease, the seated party would have to have some sort of break in the skin to allow the virus to enter. So if your bum is flawless and you don't mind the yuck factor, go ahead and take a seat.

[jai_bhardwaj]

6 SHOPPING CARTS:

Sorry to be a killjoy, but surfing down the grocery aisle just got a lot less fun. Think of every possible bacteria-filled thing a person can touch - well, once they hit their local supermarket, those things can also be found on the handle of any shopping cart. In fact, there may even be things on there that you haven't touched. A study from the University of Arizona found that shopping carts were loaded with more bacteria, saliva, and fecal matter than escalators, public telephones, and even public bathrooms. So next time you're at a supermarket, you might as well pick yourself up some Purell. Shop and squirt, shop and squirt...

SOME MORE INFORMATION

Grocery store shopping cart handles have more germs than public restrooms, making them one of the worst public places for germs, according to researchers.

It's a problem that at least one state, Arkansas, is trying to address, by passing a law forcing stores to clean up their carts.

How germy could shopping carts really be? Very, according to researchers at the University of Arizona who tested all kinds of public surfaces. They found that shopping carts were loaded with more saliva, bacteria and even fecal matter than escalators, public telephones, and even public bathrooms.

The only surfaces that had more germs were playground equipment and bus rails.

The Arkansas law will push grocery stores to provide sanitation wipes at the door so customers don't have to wrap their hands around the last shopper's bacteria.

"When I was campaigning, many of my constituents brought it to my attention [that] many shopping carts could possibly have germs and contamination on them," Rep. Fred Allen, D-Ark., told "Good Morning America."

"Every kid in America teethes on shopping cart handles," said Dr. Chuck Gerba at the University of Arizona. "They don't have the best sanitary habits. … I mean, you're putting your broccoli where their butt was."

That's why Amanda Gutstadt always carries sanitizer when she shops with her son Max, especially during flu season.

Even a fifth-grader can detect the germs. Nicole Shaw's testing of shopping carts Wednesday night won her a spot in the North Carolina Regional Science Fair.

"When I found the E.coli, I thought it was pretty nasty," she said. "I am working on getting a patent on my shopping cart cleaning system."

Some supermarkets already offer wipes, but if yours does not, germ experts say the smartest thing to do is wash your hands and your child's hands after you leave.

Another option is to spring for a baby shopping seat cover.

[jai_bhardwaj]

7 REMOTE CONTROLS :

How many times has ice cream splattered onto your remote control and you've just ignored it? Or even worse, smeared it across the surface into an expansive-but-barely-there layer? Add to that the MRSA, VRE and SARS bacteria that is easily transferable by touching TV remotes, and you've got yourself one soiled artifact. Next channel, please.

SOME MORE INFORMATION:

MRSA and SARS bacteria found on TV remotes. According to previous studies, the television remote control was found to have the highest level of bacteria in a patient’s hospital room….More than 2-million Americans acquire hospital-related infections each year with over 90,000 deaths reported. Source: University of Arizona Study.

TV remotes are a carrier of active bacteria and other health hazards
• Semen, urine and active bacteria found on hotel TV remotes
• Cracks and crevices from other TV remotes may allow ingress or egress of microbes, spores or bodily fluids.

[jai_bhardwaj]

8 BATH TUBS :


Sure, you're all clean and spiffy, but what about your bathtub? The bathtub is home to many toxic bacterias that is often left unnoticed. That is, until someone in the family catches a staph infection, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, septicemia, or some form of a skin condition. Believe it or not, bacteria left lingering near the drain of a bathtub is worse than bacteria found in the toilet. By cleaning the bathtub with bathroom cleaner just once a week, you can minimize these unwanted germs (and illnesses) from you and your loved ones. Go on, give it a good rub-a-dub-dub.

SOME MORE INFORMATION:

Everybody thinks that soaking on a bathtub is very relaxing and at the same time energizing. However, the very same place where you wind up can be the scenario for a domestic accident. Thousands of children slip and fall on the bathtubs and result seriously injured.

Parents should be informed about bathtub dangers. Parents tend to worry about their kids constantly; obviously they do not want them to get hurt. But many times, parents take bathtubs for granted, totally unaware of the dangers and risks they entail for a little kid.

You would be surprised to find out that slips and falls cause over forty thousand injuries only in the United States. It is important that parents start regarding bathtubs as a danger zone. When children fall on the bathtub they usually injure their faces, head and necks. This can result in a serious injury, especially in kids younger than four years old.

Bathtubs are also home to toxic bacteria. You can find over a dozen different types of bacteria on some bathtubs, which may lead to different kinds of illnesses. Toxic bacteria represent a hazard not only for children but also for adults. Some of the bacteria that can be found on bathtubs can cause staph infections. These infections can be deadly.

The bacteria found in bathtubs can cause urinary tract infections, pneumonia, septicemia, and skin conditions. These illnesses can severely affect children. Bathing your kids on a bathtub represents a serious and very real risk to their health.

A large number of children get scald by bathtubs' hot water. It is very common for children to get burns from scalding water on bathtubs, and end up in the hospital. Obviously, regulating water temperature is not a very difficult task. However, many times parents who are in a hurry, forget about this.

It is also known that little children can easily drown on a bathtub. It takes only a second for an accident like this to happen. Bathing your children on a bathtub is a dangerous and risky thing to do. A lot of children lost their lives due to this kind of accidents.

The best way to make a bathtub a safe place for your children is taking certain prevention measures. First of all, have your pipes cleaned to eliminate bacteria. Secondly, do not let your children alone on the bathtub, always supervise them while bathing.

It is also a good idea to use anti-slip mats. Shatterproof enclosures, handholds, curve bathtub edges, and recessed fittings, are some of the methods that can be used to prevent children from tripping or falling on the bathtub.

Talk to your pediatrician about the dangers of bathtubs. He will sure be able to give some professional advice on how to handle this matter. A bathtub can be a very dangerous and even deadly weapon, at the reach of your children. That is why parents need to take all the necessary measures to prevent accidents.

[jai_bhardwaj]

9 KITCHEN SINK :


Contrary to popular opinion, the kitchen may actually be the dirtiest place in the house. Of course, that's not including your dirty little brother Jimmy's bedroom but that's another story. Anyway, there's typically 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the kitchen sink drain alone, so you can only imagine the total gunk with faucet handles and all. To solve the problem from the inside out, try pouring 1/2 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup of vinegar down the drain. Finally, rinse with hot water, and you just might hear your sink burp a clean gurgle of delight.


SOME MORE INFORMATION:

Your kitchen sink
Kitchen sinks are dirtier than most bathrooms. There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain alone. Plus your sponge, basin and faucet handles are crawling with bacteria as well.

Reduce the risk: Clean your kitchen counters and sink with an antibacterial product after preparing or cleansing food, especially raw fruits and vegetables, which carry lots of potential pathogens like salmonella, campylobacter and E. coli. Wash your hands as well with warm, soapy water for 20 seconds (long enough to sing “Happy Birthday”). Sanitize sponges by running them through the dishwasher’s drying cycle, which will kill 99.9 percent of bacteria on them. As for the sink, clean it twice a week with a solution of one tablespoon of chlorine bleach and one quart of water. Scrub the basin, the pour solution down the drain.

[jai_bhardwaj]

10 KITCHEN SPONGE :


"NO! I TRUSTED YOU!!!"



Now it just seems like I'm messing with your head. But I'm not. It's true. The very sponge that takes the grit off of your dishes and bathroom sink, is really the dirtiest of them all. The yellow and green icon of the kitchen is really a cozy home for germs. Its moist, micro-crevices make it harder to disinfect, so instead of wiping surfaces clean with a sponge, users are really just transferring bacteria from one place to another. An easy remedy is to microwave the sponge for 60 seconds--it improves the odor too!

SOME MORE INFORMATION:

Zap away bugs.
Kitchen sponges are the No. 1 source of germs in the whole house. Why? The moist, micro-crevices that make a sponge such an effective cleaning device also make it a cozy home for germs and more difficult to disinfect. Wiping your counters or dishes with a dirty sponge will only transfer the bacteria from one item to another. "Wet your sponge and then pop it in the microwave for two minutes to eliminate the germs that lurk inside the crevices," says Neil Schachter, MD, medical director of respiratory care at Mount Sinai in New York City, and the author of The Good Doctor's Guide to Colds and Flu.

[jai_bhardwaj]

11 DOOR KNOBS :

A lot of people wash their hands before leaving the bathroom but a lot of people don't. Modern door knobs are designed with anti-bacterial properties but they take hours to kill bacteria and non-bacterial door knobs have it even worse. Hands are one of the dirtiest parts of the human body and all of that bacteria just gets put right onto door knobs and transferred onto your own hands.

[jai_bhardwaj]

12 FRIDGE HANDLES :


The reasons behind this one are the same as the door knob except it is even worse as when someone is sick in your family they will probably be touching the fridge a lot and transferring bacteria to everyone else in the family. Since nobody ever cleans fridge handles the bacteria stays and has a lot of time to multiple and grow.

[jai_bhardwaj]

13 SHIFTER KNOB :


Same as the Fridge Handle and Door Knob, the Shifter Knob in your car gets touched all the time but is rarely cleaned. Imagine all the fast food and money you have handled right before putting your hand right back on the Shifter Knob. Maybe now is a good time to clean it?

[aspundir]

Nice Informative....................................