Computer keyboards can be dirtier than a toilet

[cynatnite]

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - Think twice before eating those dropped crumbs off your computer keyboard -- you might as well be eating off a toilet seat, according to a new study on the amount of germs on keyboards.

A study by British consumer magazine "Which? Computing" asked a microbiologist to examine 33 keyboards in a typical London office, a toilet seat and a toilet door handle, for bugs generally found in unhygienic places.

Four keyboards were judged potential health hazards and the microbiologist recommended the removal of one keyboard as it had 150 times the pass limit of bacteria -- five times filthier than the swabbed toilet seat.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080502/lf_nm_life/computers_dirty_dc

[Poll_Blind]

1. Oh sweet Jesus, I can vouch for that. n/t

PB

[Selatius]

2. Always wash your hands before returning to work...and your keyboard.

Lots of folks use the bathroom and yet don't wash their hands afterward.

[tbyg52]

3. As can your desktop

Hands are what carry the contamination from place to place.

[IDemo]

4. It probably doesn't help with repeated nasal spewings of coffee, Pepsi and milk

The internets are hazardous to keyboards! :spray:

[UTUSN]

5. & yet, when I mentioned in the Lounge I tape plastic wrap over the keyboard,

a very cool (cough) young woman replied that this was as geekily unappealing to her as sex with a condom.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

6. If we could just figure out how to plug our toilets into our computers, we'd all be a lot safer.

[poebango]

7. I guess this means I should stop typing with my tongue

:9

[seabeyond]

12. lol. i love threads like these that leave it open for the wonderful humor

of du users.....

[watrwefitinfor]

13. Or any other appendages. nt

[poebango]

15. Exactly

They don't call the thing a "laptop" for nothing, you know.

[Ian David]

8. You're also more likely to get pregnant from a keyboard than a toilet seat. n/t

[seabeyond]

11. ah ha..... lol. n/t

[poebango]

14. HA HA HA!!!!!!!!

:rofl:

[rucky]

9. I didn't know so many other people...

knew how to type with their ass?

[seabeyond]

10. ya... well, kitchen sink the dirtiest. toilet is NOT the dirtiest (maybe grossest)

but not the dirtiest in house. germ wise. and the shopping cart handles at the stores, ripe with illness....

ah, the obsessive.

cannot let my oldest read this article and since he peruses du, i will have to hide the thread.

[poebango]

16. Ok, now I'm just getting stupid

But thanks for the laugh, y'all. I needed one today :D

[kineneb]

17. just think of it as building up immunity by exposure

Use your computer, work on your immune system! Beats hanging out with snotty-nosed small children...