Your Desk May Be the Reason You Can’t Get Rid of Your Cold or Flu

Yes, surprising as it is, the problem may be at your workplace. Your desk, computer and phone may harbor the germs that keep re-infecting you. Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, counted bacteria on different surfaces in the workplace and found surprising differences.

---The office bathroom's toilet seat: a mere 49 germs per square inch.
---The average desktop: 21,000 germs per square inch.
---The phone: 25,000 germs per square inch.

One would not expect the desk and phone to be worse than the public toilet. But think about it. The toilet is cleaned and disinfected regularly while the desk and phone are at best dusted, certainly not disinfected. Look down at your keyboard right now, it may have so much built-up crud on the keys they are discolored.

When I first read about the germ count I pictured myself taking my handy bottle of bathroom disinfectant to work to clean my desk regularly. But what in the world would I do when I answered the phone at other people’s desks or filled in for the receptionist while she went to lunch. Hmmm. My only answer is to keep on taking my probiotics and building up a strong immune system. I tell you, you just can’t avoid these germs no matter what you do.