Keyboard users should be beware of bugs
April 30, 2008
‘Which’ computer magazine reported results of a research by a microbiologist that bugs including E coil and S aurous are found on your keyboards. Samples from 33 keyboards were examined by James Francis.
In a comparison made between a swabbed toilet seat and door handle from a London office and one of the keyboards, it was detected that the keyboard was five times dirtier than the toilet seat.
Francis said: “I haven’t seen a reading like that in a very long time- it was of the scale. It was interesting the risk of its user becoming ill.” Finally the keyboard, harboring of bacteria, almost 150 times the acceptable limit, was removed as a precautionary measure”
Do avoid eating at the desks as this is the main culprit for contamination, as the dropped crumbs lodge between keys resulting in fertile breeding ground for millions of bacteria. Another factor which contributes towards the bacterial growth is non washing of hands after using toilet.
Sarah Kidner, the editor of Which Computing said” Most people don’t give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC, but if you don’t clean your computer, you might as well eat your lunch off the toilet.’
A survey revealed that merely 22 percent of the users clean their keyboards, while 27 percent their monitor on a monthly basis. While 20 percent said they never cleaned the mouse, one in 10 said they never cleaned the keyboard.
You can be a victim of head lice as headphones could ferry germs between people.
Heed to the maxim that prevention is better than cure and shut the computer down unplug it before gently dusting it with a soft lint-free cloth and wipe with an approved computer cleaning fluid.
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