After blogging, wash your hands

posted at 7:22 am on May 5, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

I never realized how dangerous blogging could be, but an ABC News report puts the dirty in the QWERTY, as Dan Childs writes. According to a small study by a British scientist, computer keyboards and mice could have as much as five times the level of harmful bacteria as a toilet. However, before reaching for the Lysol, one point gets missed until the end of the article:

It turns out that your computer keyboard could put a host of potentially harmful bacteria — including E. coli and staph — quite literally at your fingertips.

Sure, it may sound like a hypochondriac’s excuse to stay away from the office. But a growing body of research suggests that computer mice and keyboards are, in fact, prime real estate for germs.

It’s a phenomenon most recently illustrated by tests at a typical office environment in the United Kingdom. A consumer advocacy group commissioned the tests in which British microbiologist James Francis took a swab to 33 keyboards, a toilet seat and a toilet door handle at the publication’s London office in January.

Francis then tested the swabs to see what nasty germs he managed to pick up. He found that four of the keyboards tested were potential health hazards — and one had levels of germs five times higher than that found on the toilet seat.

Computer equipment received the blame for spreading a rotovirus outbreak in an elementary school in the DC area in 2007, so the concept isn’t exactly new. And let’s face it — it sounds like a good explanation for the crud we sometimes see on blogs. However, this news report only applies to shared computers, not single-person use keyboards and mice.

In a way, this shouldn’t be a surprise at all. Anytime someone uses an item handled by another person, bacterial exposure occurs, especially if the previous user is less than hygienic about washing their hands. Doorknobs, paper money, playground equipment — all of these become potential transfer agents. Computer keyboards and mice get similar contact in shared environments.

That doesn’t apply to home use. The only bacteria and viruses on my keyboard are the ones I put there, which makes for a very low risk.  The report fails to mention this until well after the jump, which makes it sound just a little hysterical.  Common sense dictates that using a shared keyboard will expose people to the germs of anyone else who had previously used it.

Best advice: practice safe computing. Wash hands after using shared resources of any kind, and that solves the problem just as well as when Dr. Lister first offered that advice in the 19th century.

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Comments

If you simply must use a public keyboard (I don’t even want to think about those in the public library) you can use finger cots.

Just don’t carry them around in your wallet…having that size ring imprint can’t be good for business.

James on May 5, 2008 at 7:34 AM

Lysol should be coming out with an electronically-friendly can of spray any day now.

And Peta will call it inhumane to the whittle germs.

Rovin on May 5, 2008 at 7:34 AM

I don’t have problems with keyboards, fingers and germs because I hardly use my fingers for typing.

My fingers are always busy doing something else.

Sometimes while eating, drinking and scratching my belly button, I find it easier to type with my toes, and its cleaner too since I rarely use my toes for eating big meals.

Indy Conservative on May 5, 2008 at 7:37 AM

A lot more harmful is what sometimes comes from use of a keyboard, rather than what is on it.

richardcamera on May 5, 2008 at 7:49 AM

Supposedly you can throw your keyboard in the dishwasher quite safely.

Personally, I’ll stick to a wet wipe.

JohnW on May 5, 2008 at 8:58 AM

Not really sure why, but for some reason, Ed, you missed the BBC report on the very same phenomenon as it passed through the HA Headlines section. Not really sure why it wasn’t made a proper blog entry then, but nevertheless I’m glad to see this got a bit more attention. If I may, I will repost my original thoughts from the previous thread on this subject:

I work in IT (currently doing Desktop Support for an IT outsourcer, stationed in a large phone sales/support company. I’ve also done Network Administration.) and I can tell you FOR A FACT that this article speaks the truth.

I have seen white keyboards blackened with dirt and grime from YEARS of not being cleaned, yellowed and stained from all the nasty crap spilled on them. Black keyboards rendered grey from lint and finger oil trapped in them, and keyboards of all kinds crusted with the most vile offal imaginable. And this in a CORPORATE setting!

Is it any wonder I keep a JUMBO sized bottle of hand-sanitizer at my desk, and carry a small bottle with me anywhere I go? I wash my hands AT LEAST 10 times each workday (not counting washing after using the head) and I have to keep hand lotion around because my hands get chapped from all the washing. AND I STILL GET SICK ALL THE TIME.

Keyboards and mice, even when they appear clean, hide all sorts of nasty and gross germs. They are little petri dishes that we place our finergtips into all day long. If you only touch your own, then it’s not too big a deal. But if, like me, you must touch DOZENS of keyboards each day, it’s like working in a CDC lab with no protection.

Guys and gals, CLEAN YOUR KEYBOARDS! MORE THAN ONCE A YEAR! Preferably once a week. I recommend the Clorox or Lysol cleaning wipes. Not only will they disinfect your keyboard, but they will remove grime and lint. Using compressed air on a keyboard turned upside-down also helps remove food particles, hair, dust and other crap the board collects as well.

A few tips for keeping your keyboard clean:

1) DO NOT eat or drink near your keyboard. This includes chips, crackers, cookies, and full meals. (Unless you are prepared to clean your keyboard frequently.) IN PARTICULAR, DO NOT eat cereal with milk near your keyboard. Even if you are an exceptionally clean eater, drops of the milk will still splash out of the bowl, land on your keyboard, turn rancid and grow nasty bacteria. And dried milk is almost impossible to clean off the SIDES of the keys, where it invariably lands due to the splash trajectory angle.

2) DO NOT type with dirty hands, or after applying hand cream. This leaves a dirty and/or greasy residue on the keyboard that more dirt can stick to, and create a little grime-based germ incubator.

3) As noted above, FREQUENTLY clean your keyboard with a damp (not dripping wet) cloth using a mild detergent and/or bleach mixture. Clorox wipes work a treat.

4) Don’t get attached to your keyboard and/or mouse. They should be replaced about every 2 years, unless you are prepared to disassemble and deep clean them about once a year. Even then, the plastic keys will begin to wear down in about a two year period anyway, so it’s probably worth your time to just replace it. Same with the mouse.

Remember, your computer is valuable. Keeping it clean is just as important, and contributes to keeping it running properly. Keeping something you touch constantly also helps keep you healthy, so just clean it.

Of course, I was called a clean freak shortly after posting this, which is not true at all. I noted in that thread that my wife refers to my car as “The car of squalor” because of my habit of collecting garbage in my car from candy wrappers to empty drink bottles. So a neatnik I am not. I think I summed up my thoughts best with this line:

All I’m saying is: Clean that disgusting keyboard. I might be the next person who has to touch the nasty thing.

‘Nuff said.

wearyman on May 5, 2008 at 9:53 AM

Keyboards? Think about doorknobs. Think about paper money. The simple solution is to wash your hands before you touch the food you intend to eat. It’s not really practical to not touch things that might have germs… because everything has germs. And you don’t have any idea of what types of germs are on any given surface. But this is a lot of worry about nothing provided you use common sense and wash your hands before meals.

And of course you skin has flora that prevents nearly all germs from being harmful unless you get them in your mouth or into a break in the skin.

Maxx on May 5, 2008 at 10:30 AM

The thing that always freaks me out is the nozzle at the gas pump.

RushBaby on May 5, 2008 at 10:34 AM

Believe or not, the morons who came up with the idea of Pair Programming never took this into account.

corona on May 5, 2008 at 12:04 PM

Old news TBH.

I always wash my hands after using a strange computer.

Ortzinator on May 5, 2008 at 12:55 PM

I’ve wondered why Logitech came out with a keyboard with an antimicrobal coating.

steveegg on May 5, 2008 at 12:55 PM

“Wash hands after using shared resources of any kind, and that solves the problem just as well as when Dr. Lister first offered that advice in the 19th century.”

Surely, it is easier hose down the keyboard every evening with disinfectant.

davod on May 5, 2008 at 2:26 PM

Maybe if people didn’t scratch their ass or pick their nose before blogging, we wouldn’t have this problem.

RMCS_USN on May 5, 2008 at 2:43 PM

I quit using my keyboard to wipe myself a long time ago, so if anyone needs to use mine, it’s okay.

Squiggy on May 5, 2008 at 8:42 PM

wearyman: If you’re still getting sick, the sanitizer isn’t working. You could try just spreading plastic wrap across the keyboard before using it. I’ve heard that works.

Personally, I use the plastic wrap over my home keyboard just to keep it from getting crumbs, spilled soda, etc.

And if you still get sick, it’s you. :)

JimC on May 5, 2008 at 9:48 PM