Friday, February 27, 2009

Where are the germs in your house?

When I saw the CNN headline 'How to germ-proof your home' today I did not have high expectations. When I clicked on the article and saw the accompanying illustration I was expecting the usual 'Arggh!! Germs!! They're everywhere! Kill them all. Kill them!' type of article.

However the article is actually very sensible and cites some interesting studies. Did you know that one-third of women's purses have fecal bacteria on the bottom? Ewww.

(B)e aware that there is such a thing as too clean. Overuse of antibacterial products may lead the microbes to develop mutations that make them resistant to disinfectants and multiply to create a resistant population.

"You don't need to wash yourself with bacterial soap, because you might lose microbes that are beneficial to you," Eichenbaum said.

1 comment:

Rachel Jones said...

"One of the cleanest things in the bathrooms we find are the toilet seats," Gerba (a microbiologist at the University of Arizona) said. "I'd put my fanny on it any time -- unless it's wet; then you'd want to wipe it first."

I found that interesting. It's funny that everyone believes (and is taught) that public bathrooms are SO dirty, but they're really no more dirty than other public places.