The office desk: more germs than a toilet

You are safer to eat your lunch off a toilet seat than the average office desk - and be careful how you handle the taps on the way out: they are really filthy, says a visiting American microbiologist.

Dr Charles Gerba, of Arizona University, advises not to eat in either place and to regularly sanitise hands and disinfect surfaces.

He has been brought to New Zealand by a cleaning company to advise employers on simple steps to reduce staff sick days.

He says regularly sanitising surfaces with disinfecting wipes has been shown to reduce the absenteeism of office workers by up to 30% and of schoolchildren by more than 50%.

His research has found that dishcloths are typically the nastiest items at home, harbouring more E.coli - a bacteria that indicates faecal contamination - than the toilet.

"There's more faecal bacteria in your kitchen sink than in your toilet after you flush it.

People nuke their bathrooms, but not their kitchens," Dr Gerba said yesterday.

"There are 200 times more E.coli on the cutting board than on a toilet seat.

It's safer to make a sandwich on a toilet seat than on a cutting board in the average home."

This is because many home cooks fail to properly sanitise the board after cutting up raw meat, or do not have separate boards for raw meat and ready-to-eat foods.

But things only get worse at work.

The phone and the desk-top are the "germiest" items in the office.

"The computer keyboard and mouse are then next worst, then the drawers.

"Women have germier desks because they tend to store food in their desks, like muffins, apples and bananas.

"Men store candy bars and bubblegum."

Decaying food and crumbs on your desk and in your keyboard fostered the growth of nasty bugs.

On your way into the office toilet, consider that the door handle on the way in would be loaded with bad bugs, as would the underside of the toilet seat and especially the taps.

But the door handle on the way out would not be so bad because most people had washed their hands.

Germs were easily transferred from hands into noses, mouths and eyes, because people touched thier faces so much - 80 times an hour for children and 16 times for adults.

He urged frequent use of hand sanitiser and regularly cleaning desks, phones, keyboards and computer mice with disinfectant wipes.

Least hygienic:
Among white-collar workplaces, the highest concentrations of harmful bacteria and viruses were found on surfaces used by. -

1.School teachers
2.Bankers
3.Accountants
4.Media workers
5.Doctors