Month: December 2007

Top 22 Germ Infested Places

Nanncy Long Asia Unhealthy Lifestyles , , , ,

Top 22 Germ Infested Places

Germs (viral, bacterial, or fungal) are everywhere! Because they are invisible, we often assume that it is not a problem. However, you can pick up E Coli and fecal bacteria, coliforms, staph-a, staphylococci, salmonella, coxsackievirus, campylobacter, rotavirus, lice, pinworms etc from public places as well as from your home. These dangerous organisms with their deadly toxins can cause major illness, damage to the gastrointestinal tract (ie. your gut), circulatory (eg blood and kidneys) and respiratory (eg lungs) systems. The following are the Top 22 Germ Infested Places (the list has been expanded since last posted) which you may come into contact on a daily basis:

  • Places in your Home that may be Germ Infested:

  1. Toilet bowl: 3.2 million bacteria/square inch
  2. Kitchen drain: 567,845 bacteria/square inch
  3. Sponge or counter-wiping cloth: 134,630 bacteria/square inch
  4. Bathtub, near drain: 119,468 bacteria/square inch
  5. Kitchen sink, near drain: 17,964 bacteria/square inch
  6. Kitchen faucet handle: 13,227 bacteria/square inch
  7. Bathroom faucet handle: 6,267 bacteria/square inch
  8. Bathroom sink, near drain: 2,733 bacteria/square inch
  9. Pet food dish, inside rim: 2,110 bacteria/square inch
  10. Kitchen floor, in front of sink: 830 bacteria/square inch
  11. Toilet floor, in front of toilet: 764 bacteria/square inch
  12. Kitchen counter top: 488 bacteria/square inch
  13. Bathroom counter top: 452 bacteria/square inch
  14. Garbage bin: 411 bacteria/square inch
  15. Dish towel: 408 bacteria/square inch
  16. Toy: 345 bacteria/square inch
  17. Kitchen tabletop: 344 bacteria/square inch
  18. Home office phone or refrigerator door: 319 bacteria/square inch
  19. Toilet seat: 295 bacteria/square inch
  20. Bathroom light switch: 217 bacteria/square inch
  21. Microwave buttons: 214 bacteria/square inch
  22. Kitchen chopping board: 194 bacteria/square inch
  23. Child-training potty: 191 bacteria/square inch
  24. Infant changing mat and infant high chair: 190 bacteria/square inch
  25. Kitchen phone: 133 bacteria/square inch
  26. Bathroom door’s inside handle: 121 bacteria/square inch
  27. Toilet’s flush handle: 83 bacteria/square inch
  28. TV remote control: 70 bacteria/square inch
  29. Home computer keyboard: 64 bacteria/square inch
  30. Home computer mouse: 50 bacteria/square inch
  31. Bed Mattress (as many as 5 million dust/bed mites live in a double mattress and pillows)

  • Public Places that may be Germ Infested:

  1. Airplane Toilets
  2. Hospitals and Medical Clinics Waiting Areas
  3. Public Drinking Fountains (0.6-1.2 million bacteria per sq inch on the spigot) Watch Shocking Health Inspection Video about bacteria in public drinking fountains
  4. Supermarkets and Grocery Store where raw or frozen foods can be handled
  5. Shopping Cart Handles and Shopping Basket Handles
  6. Currency (Cash)
  7. ATM Buttons (averages 1,200 bacteria per button)
  8. Elevator Buttons (3,500 bacteria per square inch)
  9. Vending Machines Buttons
  10. Shared Ink Pens or Pencils (2,350 bacteria per square inch)
  11. Playground Equipment (even fast food play centers)
  12. Daycare centers equipment, toys and books
  13. Escalator Handrails
  14. Mats and Exercise equipment in Health Clubs
  15. Hotel Drinking Glasses (watch video)
  16. Hotel Room Remote Control
  17. Public transport hand rails, hand poles and arm-rest (in planes, trains, buses and taxis)
  18. Gas pump nozzles
  19. Cafeteria trays (33,800 bacteria per square inch)
  20. Theaters, Clubs, Sports Venues, Games Arcade and Recreational Facilities amenities
  21. Public Toilet Seats (49 germs per square inch)
  22. Office: Office Desk (10 million bacteria per sq inch), Desktop surface: (20,961 bacteria per square inch), Telephones (25,127 bacteria per square inch), PC Keyboards (3,295 bacteria per square inch), PC Mouse (1,676 bacteria per square inch), Fax machine: (301 bacteria per square inch), photocopier (69 bacteria per square inch), Toilet seat: (49 bacteria per square inch).

Household Items with the Most Germs:

  1. Kitchen Sponges and dish cloth
  2. Toilet bowl
  3. Garbage can
  4. Refrigerator
  5. Cutting Boards
  6. Door Knobs (especially the toilet bathroom doorknob)
  7. Toothbrushes
  8. Hairbrushes

The Main Ways Disease are Spread:

Direct Contact:

  • Person to Person: When you come into direct physical contact with a infected person’s bodily fluids (from mouth, nose, eyes etc) and blood, there is a high chance you will get ill.
  • Animal to Person: Being bitten, scratched or handling animal waste or utensils can expose you to serious diseases.
  • Mother to Unborn Child: If a mother suffers a disease, it is highly likely that the unborn child will also suffer from the disease.

Indirect Contact:

  • 80% of all infections are spread by hand – indirectly through objects touched by an infected person.
  • Droplet Transmission: through coughs and sneezes. (Watch this YouTube video on how to cough and sneeze onto your sleeves and minimize the spread of infectious diseases)

  • Particle Transmission: when you come into contact with infectious airborne virus, bacterium and other germs.
  • Bites and Stings: Mosquitoes, ticks, lice and fleas moves from host to host cross spreading diseases.
  • Food Contamination: Under-cooked food, improperly washed fresh fruits and vegetables or food handled by unhygienic or infected persons can give you food poisoning. Whenever you dip a partially eaten potato chip (or cracker or any other food), you will add at least 100 bacteria onto the bowl of dip (sauce) each time you do it. So don’t share dips.
  • Interesting Fact: There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

What You Can Do To Reduce Germ Infested Areas in Your Home:

To avoid infection and getting sick:

  1. Hand Washing – Wash your hands frequently and regularly, especially after going to the toilet, before and after preparing food, after touching animals and pets and if someone in your household is ill. It is important to use soap and water, scrub underneath your nails and the back of your hands and dry thoroughly with a paper or clean dry towel (Watch video on how to wash your hand thoroughly).
  2. Surface Disinfection – Commonly touched surfaces should be regularly disinfected (FDA recommends a mixture of one part chlorine bleach to 10 parts water). Kitchen surfaces should also be cleaned and disinfected before preparing food and immediately after they have been in contact with raw foods such as meat and poultry, to reduce the chances of cross contamination.
  3. Proper Food Handling – To avoid food-borne illness, cook and store food at the proper temperature; separate raw meats from fresh produce and packaged goods in your grocery bag and refrigerator; and regularly disinfect surfaces to prevent cross contamination.
  4. Soap and water don’t actually kill bacteria, but they create a slippery environment so that they slide off. That’s why it’s so important that you rub your hands together with soap for at least 20 seconds (about as long as it takes to sing the Happy Birthday song twice), making sure to clean well between fingers and under the nails. Use warm water and work up a good lather all the way up to your wrists making sure all skin surfaces i.e. backs of hands, wrists, between your fingers and fingernails are given a good cleaning.
  5. Anti-bacterial liquids and abrasive soaps (soaps with triclosan and other antiseptics) are not recommended as it upsets the skin’s normal flora, which is needed to keep more undesirable bacteria from taking over. It was also reported that anti-bacterial liquids and soaps is instrumental in the contribution to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Furthermore, the chemical, triclosan, in antibiotic soaps and liquids is said to kill human cells. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a swab of your forearm may reveal up to 182 species of bacteria (8 percent of which were unknown).
  6. Alcohol-based instant hand sanitizers which comprise mainly of alcohol are safe to use (must contain at least 60% alcohol to be effective). Hand sanitizers may kill germs but they do not remove dirt. So you still need to wash your hands with soap.
  7. Do not wash your hands (and even other parts of your body eg face) vigorously so as to thin or damage the skin eg abrasive liquids or soaps or cause the removal of protective oils produced by your skin. Your skin is your first line of defense against bacteria and toxins. Protect broken or cracked skin from exposure to bacteria with necessary wound dressings. The presence of bacteria in your wound can prolong the healing process. The skin of the human body is alive with life – microscopic life of all kinds. In his classic work, Life on Man (1969), Theodor Rosebury estimates that there are 10 million individual bacteria living on the average square centimeter of human skin (155,000 per sq inch).
  8. A straight 5 percent solution of vinegar—such as you can buy in the supermarket—kills 99 percent of bacteria, 82 percent of mold, and 80 percent of germs (viruses).
  9. Avoid brushing your hands against your eyes, nose and mouth if your hands have come into contact with such high risk germ infested places. You should be extra vigilant when there is an epidemic or someone in your house has a contagious illness even coughs and colds.
  10. Be sure to close the toilet lid before you flush the toilet to keep microbes inside the bowl from splashing as far as 20 feet onto you, counters and anything on them. These floating bacteria can stay in the air for at least 2 hours before settling on everything in the toilet / bathroom.
  11. This health procedure is more critical in airplane toilets as the vacuum flushing effect from airplane toilet sends a strong volcanic-like gush of air upwards together with the hundreds of thousands of microbes. When 50 people from many parts of the world share one airplane toilet intensively, you can expect a whole host of exotic germs to abound. And for goodness sake, don’t open the door immediately after flushing with the toilet bowl cover up unless you want to flood the whole airplane with germs!
  12. Use tissue paper, if possible, when making physical contact with high risk contaminated objects and discard the tissue paper immediately after.
  13. Disinfect highly suspect germ infested areas in your home regularly with non-antibiotic soaps.
  14. Teach your kids about germs and hygiene.
  15. Immune health depends on eating right, getting enough sleep and exercise, and avoiding environmental toxins and stress.
  16. Take high quality health supplements that build up your immune system like Unicity’s “Immunizen“

The 5-Second Rule

There is a kid’s rule that says if the food drops onto the floor, it is safe to eat it if you pick the food up within 5 seconds. There is no scientific evidence to this 5-Second Rule. Germs can jump onto the food as soon as it lands on the floor etc. So don’t practice this disgusting habit. Even if you are so poor, you can’t afford to throw away food, this practice is not recommended as your medical bills will be more than the cost of the food that fell onto the floor.

Remember, germs never sleep. They show no mercy. They are getting stronger. Germ Warfare is not a myth even in “disease-free”times. Germs are with us all the time. If you take the necessary precautions outlined above, you will be able to stay healthy and keep the germs from taking over your body.

Bacteria Testing Kits

There are many different commercial bacteria testing kits which will enable you to easily test for bacteria in your home or elsewhere. Some of the bacteria testing kits are simple devices (like test strips or test dishes) and do not need any special lab equipment. You can get to the online vendors offering such testing kits by typing: “bacteria testing kits” on any search engine and choose which kits meet your needs and budget.

You can also test if bed and living room furniture fabrics are clean by using an inexpensive battery operated UV light hand lamps. When all the lights in the room are switched off, UV light will show stains that may contain bacteria. Such stains will be lighter than the rest of the fabric under the UV light in the dark. This is particularly useful when you want to check if the bed sheets in hotels are clean. See the YouTube video below for more details on this.

Dirty Hotel Secrets! – Bedsheets. Find out how it affects you on YouTube:

Dirty Hotel Secrets! – Drinking Cups. The Health Risks on YouTube:

Banned Hotel Commercial that will Shock you on YouTube:

More about Germs:

Also read and watch videos on “Germ Infested Foods”

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