Office equipment like phones and keyboards can be a breeding ground for germs.
It's not a pleasant thought, but your computer keyboard at work may be crawling with things that could make you sick. Same with our desk phone, the photocopier and the fax machine. Germs are everywhere, and their latest hiding place seems to be the office equipment, which can be a magnet for bacteria and viruses if people don't wash their hands.
Such is the sales pitch of people like Walter Peters and Keleigh Eby, a father-daughter pair who recently founded Ephrata-based ... services to rid all computers, phones, fax machines, copiers, printers, and even stereo equipment from unseen critters.
The twosome whisk into Lancaster Country businesses with their white lab coats and rubber gloves and within 15 minutes can transform a once-filthy keyboard and monitor into a clean and sanitized electronic tool."We're interested in only those people who understand that there are germs in the marketplace" says Peters, who quit his job at Strada Design Associates of Pennsylvania to start the business with his daughter. "If they understand that, then we do business. People are finally starting to discover where the germs are coming from."
"I started researching this line of work and I saw that there was this huge niche in the market where janitors and cleaning people are not allowed to touch this equipment for fear that their cleaning fluids would ruin the computer keyboard," he said.
"The whole reason why companies have never done this is there's never been a simple way of doing this."
According to a CBS Evening News report in May, for example, a toxic form of E. coli bacteria that could cause stomach ailments and possibly kidney failure was found on an ATM machine in Manhattan. And CBS found that 50% of the surfaces it tested had at least one form of deadly bacteria on them.
Additionally, the Wirthlin World wide research firm for the American Society for Microbiology surveyed 7,000 US residents and found that "while 94% of respondents said they always wash their hands after using the toilet, researchers stationed in pubic restrooms found that only 68% of adults actually do" the Calgary Herald reported in an article titled, "Getting a Grip on Germs."
Even handshakes, the Herald noted, can spread colds, flu, respiratory ailments, hepatitis A, dysentery, salmonella, and skin infections.
That said, how worried should people be that they could contract a disease form their keyboard, office copier, or desk telephone?
"The first issue is whether or not you can actually find these types of germs on public surfaces that would be a health threat, and the answer is yes," said Carl Batt, a professor of food science and microbiologist at Cornell University. "(But) the likelihood of getting sick from contact with bacteria on a public surface is extremely low,"
Most viruses like colds and the flu are spread through person-to-person contact and contact with surfaces, while most bacterial-type diseases are not spread by contact, Batt added.
Even the Manhattan ATM machine probably wasn't a health threat, he said.
"There probably wasn't enough bacteria or germs on that ATM for someone to get directly sick. Things like E. coli, you have to ingest a certain amount of these germs and you have to eat 'em."
His best advice? Do "normal things that your mom probably told you when you were growing up. Wash your hands when you go to the bathroom."
This article originally appeared in the Intelligencer Journal
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment