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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4777970.html
Quote from below: "Gerba concluded that in
the office, a person's desk had 400 times more bacteria than a toilet
seat."
Penn & Teller demonstrated in their TV series that your hands have
more germs than the part of your anatomy that rests on the toilet seat.
Houston Chronicle, May 7, 2007
Business
Charles Gerba, a microbiologist, never fails to
find alarming levels of germs in his office survey.
photos
May 7, 2007, 1:06AM
Fend off the germs that are eager to join you on the job
By HENRY J. GOMEZ
Newhouse News Service
Killing germs at work
<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4777970.html>Fend
off the germs that may join you on the job
<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4777975.html>The
money's in the microbes
Tread cautiously, cubicle-bound office drones.
It's a jungle out there. Or, at the very least, a buffet for bacteria.
That's the word from public health advocates and microbiologists, as well
as from consumer-product marketers that want to sell you an arsenal of
defense weaponry.
For the casual neat freak, there are a variety of disinfecting wipes and
sprays available in most grocery and convenience stores.
For the hard-core Howard Hughes in you, there are rubber and washable
keyboards, antimicrobial paper and special coatings for telephones. Then
again, it might be just as simple as washing your hands regularly and
practicing proper office etiquette when it comes to snacking, sneezing and
coughing.
"These are the basic things our mothers taught us," said Mary Bertin, a registered nurse and an infection control
practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic. "I'm not impressed with all of
this antimicrobial everything. I think it's taken away from the tenets of
good hand hygiene."
Perhaps, as advertised, such products really do kill 99.9 percent of
bacteria and prevent the spread of cold, flu and other infectious disease.
But they cost much more than the traditional soap and water that Michelle Lisgaris, an infectious disease doctor with Cleveland's
University Hospitals Case Medical Center, said "is still the No. 1 way
to go" when combating germs at the office.
Others think the basics sometimes aren't enough. Since 2002, University of Arizona microbiologist Charles Gerba, a celebrity of sorts in his field who is known as
Dr. Germ, has helped Clorox Co. with a survey on germs in the workplace. Each
year, Gerba and his team look for different trends,
and the results never fail to alarm.
In the study's first year, Gerba concluded that
in the office, a person's desk had 400 times more bacteria than a toilet
seat. Of course, Clorox, synonymous with cleaning solutions, was quick to
throw in a plug for its disinfecting wipes.
Improvements
Over the years, the study has shown that people's habits have improved
that people and offices are cleaner than they were in 2002 but danger still
lurks.
Gerba's latest study showed mold
present on several surfaces mostly the bottoms of desk drawers.
"As people spend more time at their desks, germs find plenty to
snack on," Gerba said in the most recent
report, which Clorox released in February. "They're breakfast buffets,
lunch tables and snack bars as we spend more and more hours at the
office."
With such a diagnosis, it is not surprising that Freedonia
Group, a Mayfield, Ohio,
market research firm, projects the disinfectant and antimicrobial chemicals
industry will grow 5 percent each year through 2009, when it will reach $930
million.
The players
The big players include household brand names such as Clorox and Lysol,
but also smaller companies such as Gojo Industries
and Steris Corp. Gojo's product line of skin-care
products includes Purell hand sanitizer. A company
slogan asks and answers a question: "Why don't we just wash? Because
soap and water are in the restroom. We're busy at our desks ... where the
germs are."
Steris, which supplies hospitals and nursing homes, has its own line of
products, including a hand-hygiene kit available online (<http://www.steris.com>www.steris.com) for
about $50. Other companies, such as AgIon
Technologies of Wakefield, Mass., and Domtar of Montreal, focus on
safeguarding industrial and everyday products. AgIon
makes a silver-based compound that inhibits the growth of bacteria, fungus
and mold. It is used in products from medical devices to sportswear. More
relevant to the workplace, in January, Domtar released what it markets as the
first antimicrobial office paper in North America.
The paper is treated with a silver compound that is designed to protect it
from mold and mildew. But doctors warn there is a downside to this
antimicrobial madness. Lisgaris said that with so
many products available, "there is a lot of concern that bacteria can
become resistant to the antimicrobial treatments available." Bertin, the Clinic's infection control practitioner,
agreed.
"We don't need antimicrobial everything," she said. "If
these products work even if they prevent the growth of organisms the
surfaces still initially become inhabited.
"It's all nonsense, in my opinion."
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