Clean up your desk

Filed in archive Health on February 16, 2007

Although our nation thinks that girls are cleaner than boys, this simple truth ceases when we grow up and get our own offices and desks. According to Medicine Net, women have filthier offices than men, germ-wise:

"The researchers swabbed the offices of 59 women and 54 men in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.
They sampled eight sites in each office: the phone, desktop, computer mouse, computer keyboard, exclamation key on the computer keyboard, pen, bottom of desk drawer, and handle of desk drawer.
Those samples showed twice as much bacteria in women's offices as in men's."

The blame for this shame falls on our collective nature, as we tend to keep tons of work-unrelated stuff in our drawers, on our tables and in our bags. Not only makeup and cosmetics carry bacteria, there were also significant amounts of mold from bread and food crumbs, and we all know how secure it makes us feel to have a hidden candy bar in case of urgency.

Also, men rarely carry purses, while we can't live without them, and bags are really bacteria rich, as we already talked about.

So, be smart and wipe your workspace with a disinfecting solution once in a while.