Four Surfaces We Touch Every Day That Are Crawling in Germs
I'd definitely say that I'm a pretty relaxed mom. At least, I was until the coronavirus pandemic found us. I don't panic when my kid gets dirty, takes a little taste of dirt, or squishes a bug with his bare hands, so that has to count for something, right?
I do believe that exploring and getting dirty is good for a kid, but there are some things my son wants to do and I have to draw a big nope line, especially because we have a virus that nobody really knows much about except that it is an ugly one. I'm thankful that my boy no longer tries to lick shopping carts like he did when he was a baby.
According to Fox News, these are the most germ-filled things that you and I touch each and every day. Maybe we're not touching them as much these days as we did during the pre-coronavirus days, but this is something to memory bank for when our world returns to normal.
Shopping Carts
When you put your hands on the shopping cart handle, not only is there a chance that you could be putting your hands on somebody else's boogers, which is absolutely disgusting, but there's also this: a study by the University of Arizona found that two out of every three shopping cart handles were contaminated with fecal bacteria. Yeah, no thanks.
Public Magazines
Whenever we go someplace that has magazines laying around, my husband always reaches for one and no matter how many times I've told him that he might want to reconsider, he never listens. Maybe he will when he sees this (but probably not because when a wife says not to do something, men are drawn to do it anyway). Magazines in public places get passed from hand to unwashed hand. If that doesn't make you want to stop touching them there's this- because they've got dry surfaces, bacteria like E. coli can survive on them for months.
Office Keyboards
If you think that because you're the only person who touches your keyboard at work it's completely clean, you would be very wrong. Actually, your keyboard is most likely covered in five times more germs than you'd find right this second on any given public toilet seat.
The Gym
Sorry, no. This isn't an excuse to avoid the gym (kind of hard to avoid it right now). You just need to walk in with the understanding that there's a whole lot of bacteria floating around and you should probably avoid touching your face and make sure that you wash your hands furiously after working out. Some gyms offer a wipe down solution and if yours does, use it before using the equipment. 73% of weights and 51% of aerobic equipment at the gym are covered in bacteria that could cause a cold.