Fox News
Thursday, February 15, 2007

TUCSON, Ariz. — Your office desk harbors far more bacteria than your workplace restroom, and if you're a woman, chances are your workspace has more germs than your male co-workers', a new research report shows.

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.

"I thought for sure men would be germier," Gerba said. "But women have more interactions with small children and keep food in their desks. The other problem is makeup."

Don't get Gerba wrong: 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.

MY dad warned about such things......LOL And they call 'us' filthy beasts (which is true, but not in this case!!)

Interesting...NO One ever came and looked at my DESK for this article!!

I wish they would have....I have three desks and all are clean as a whistle!
NOW my trash can isn't to clean with the diet coke cans and chocolate wrappers and gum and other things.

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Dont you work at home??

I don't doubt it, and suspect that my desk probably harbors more than most. I work in an old barn where we occasionally hear squirrels overhead playing in the space between the beams and the drop ceiling. We have mice in the fall. I handle money every day. And I often wind up eating lunch at my desk.

But I think the biggest reason we have more germs on our desks is that women generally handle more paperwork than men. And paperwork, having been passed from person-to-person within an organization, is LOADED with germs.

I wash my hands periodically, but I'm not a fanatic about the germs. The way I see it, the exposure I get there helps build my immune system. I haven't missed a day of work for illness in over two years (knock on wood).

When we were little and used to get really grubby playing outside, my mother never minded. She used to laugh and say a kid has to eat seven pounds of dirt a year to be healthy. I think she was on to something! LOL

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Women's restrooms..?

Okay... you got me. I can't stand a dirty restroom or kitchen. Those are my sticking points.

But I've heard the same thing, and it may, too, be true. I've seen some nasty things in women's rest rooms. Scares me to think what their homes must be like!

Gotta ask: Are men any better at hitting the bowl in a public restroom than they are at home? Sheesh... I get so tired of wiping up the floor.

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Think the women's restrooms thing may be a combo of babies diaper changing and 'additional hygiene reqmts.'

Men's may be visibally & physically dirtier in appearance, but urine (unless a person is sick. etc.) is sterile.....

So much for this thread....LOL

Urine is sterile??? Are you serious? Obviously I did not know that. Now I'll have to google it to learn the how's and why's.

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Yeah urine is sterile.

Back to the desk, deal, I find it hard to believe that womens desk are dirtier,,,maybe cluttered with pictures of their family but from what I have seen they seem to be the most organized, and obsessive on where things need to be put.

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There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

"Urine is sterile the second it is expelled from a human. Therefore fresh urine can be used to clean wounds in emergencies, when no alternatives are available. Urine only becomes contaminated when it has been standing for a time"