Pic from a typical office setting:
Let’s see.. bacteria from the floor.. bacteria on the envelope…
Yeah, I can see how this could be happening
“Three To Four Times” the Number of Bacteria at Women’s Desks
Women have three to four times the number of bacteria in, on and around their desks, phones, computers, keyboards, drawers and personal items as men do, the study by University of Arizona professor Charles Gerba showed. Gerba, a professor of soil, water and environmental sciences, tested more than 100 offices on the UA campus and in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon and Washington, D.C. The $40,000 study was commissioned by the Clorox Co.
Women’s desks typically looked cleaner. But the knickknacks are more abundant, and cosmetics and hand lotions make prime germ-transfer agents, Gerba said. Makeup cases also make for fine germ homes, along with phones, purses and desk drawers.
Another culprit mentioned is food– women keep more of it in their desks. Go there for munchies, but stay away from the tuna salad.
Imagine the fungus being spread by women from all those yeast infections.
Kudos on The Secretary image. Great flick.
Not that we need any more proof that most of editors of, and visitors to, DU can’t get laid, but the threads over the past few days have just added to the fire.
The sad part is that, at one point, I really did consider this a ‘great’ blog… great being a relative term regarding blogging, since the whole concept is doomed to failure.
Hopefully this continued downturn won’t find its way into JCD’s columns.
Imagine how filthy they would be if they weren’t neat freaks.
Girl cooties! Eeeewwwww!!!
6. In high school I had a part time job as a janitor at a Mastercard processing center. Having cleaned the womens bathroom daily, I can attest that women are much dirtier than men, at least in their bathrooms at work. Ick.
LOL
This is a typical Dvorakdotorgslashblog post–drives traffic but sounds improbable. It should be filed with a third of Britons (or was it Japanese?) don’t know what sex is.
Whose measurements, what sample?
And if it’s true, so what? Maybe it is the hand lotions, etc., as Gerba speculates, or maybe it’s just normal and always has been (for whatever reason). In which case it can’t be a problem, can it?
Gerba suggests:
“… using a hand sanitizer and using a disinfectant on office surfaces helps, with 25 percent fewer bacteria found on surfaces that were regularly disinfected. Once-a-day use should be sufficient”
It only “helps” if you see bacteria as a problem _per se_. But are they? Our very skins are crawling with them. Your gut wouldn’t function without its “friendly flora”–a selling point for yogurt these days. Practising a certain level of cleanliness seems wise; but an office isn’t a hospital, and isn’t it likely that scrubbing down your desk daily would only result in tougher bacteria?
The human race has survived for the past 40, 000 odd years –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon
– without “hand sanitizer” and its precursors for a darn sight longer. One feels it can manage without.
#7, more importantly, the excessive use of anti-microbial products is thought by many to cause a decrease in the effectiveness of people’s immune systems, and in the increase in resistant bacteria.
1,
Yeast is yeast, fungus is fungus and never the twain shall meet.
The $40,000 study, commissioned by the Clorox Co., makes perfect sense to me. Men wouldn’t clean their desks even if their work place had four times the bacteria of an average secretary’s office. Tell women that they’re not equal to men and need to sterilize their computer and work desks or some great evil will befall them and right away they’re off to buy the recommended cleaning products.
Also, judging from what the attached picture is telling me, I think that men would be more easily persuaded into believing that women secretaries at the office should crawl around on all fours.
This shouldn’t be a suprise to anyone who has had to clean bathrooms (I did so briefly during college). The “ladies” restrooms are always much dirtier and messier than mens.
I remember a study done about 10 years ago about womens restrooms being dirtier than mens.
A serious comment, alcohol based hand sanitizes fail to kill many pathogenic bacterial spores. Washing with plain soap is more effective. Many hospitals are removing hand pumps for this reason.
#9, a woman’s yeast infection is actually a fungus infection. I guess yeast has a more pleasant ring to it than fungus and it’s connotative of a woman’s place baking in the kitchen.
#3 – There is no compelling evidence that you can laid either, James…
A problem I’ve noticed is women who put their handbags on the floor or ground, thereby transferring outdoor bacteria to their clothing, desks, tables, etc. I guess they don’t think about it.
#8, I agree. And, our relationship with most bacteria is benign. Unless you’re James Hill and can’t laid.
This is true! Girls are nasty… .I still love em though!