Computer Keyboard Has More Germs Than A Toilet Seat
If you’re reading this at your PC, you’re probably inches away from a keyboard harbouring more bacteria than the average toilet seat.
Rentokil is asking workers to drop the habit of dining ‘Al Desko’, and get out of the office to eat their meals.
Aside from the often-touted productivity benefits of getting a proper lunch break, taking food away from your desk helps to lower the likelihood of pests like rodents, fleas and cockroaches working their way into your office. It also provides a more hygienic working environment, where germs are less likely to fester.
David McLenachan, National Account Director for PROtech, explains the hygiene issues associated with eating at your desk:
"The recent swine flu epidemic has understandably brought office hygiene to the forefront of people’s minds.
"It is distinctly unhygienic for staff to eat at their desks on a daily basis, as crumbs of food, along with hair and skin will build-up in your keyboard and encourage bacteria and viruses to grow."
The good news is there are simple measures that can be put in place to keep office pests at bay and ensure a hygienic working environment:
Top tips
1. Make sure you don’t eat at your desk. Crumbs of food, along with hair and skin will build-up in your keyboard and encourage bacteria and viruses to grow.
2. Don’t be a food hoarder - restrict food to the kitchen, and keep it out of desk drawers.
3. If you do make crumbs, make sure the floor around you is clear so the cleaners can reach them. Otherwise you can attract rodents to the area and you don’t want any mice around your desk other than the one attached to your PC!
4. Make sure bins contain bin liners and are emptied daily. Otherwise residue can build up over time and provide a food source attracting pests such as cockroaches, wasps and rodents.
5. Keep surfaces dry and don’t over water plants, as fruit flies can thrive in damp environments.
6. Wash your hands on a regular basis and use anti-bacterial hand gel, particularly after you
touch items that have been exposed to a large amount of germs such as ATMs and public transport.
7. Avoid hot-desking at work. Sharing phones is one of the quickest ways to pass germs round an office. It is important that IT equipment isn’t shared.
8. Alcohol wipes do work, but they only offer a short-term surface clean and no lasting benefit. It is hard for employees to clean effectively in the phone headsets or under their keyboard keys and it is also difficult for employers to make sure that everyone has used them.
9. Call in the professionals on a quarterly basis for hygienic treatment of phones, keyboards and PCs / notebooks. Hygienic treatment will kill any bacteria that comes into contact with the surfaces for up to eight weeks after treatment.
10. Don’t avoid calling in pest control experts for fear of alarming staff, it is much better to put preventative measures in place before a serious pest problem develops
Common office pests (with more than two legs)
Fleas - Fleas can be brought into offices from people's homes, and survive easily within the building, as carpeting and soft furnishings provide a relatively undisturbed environment for them to develop.
Flea bites are often confused with cable bug bites, which occur when static causes the fibres in carpets and chairs to rise up and pierce the skin causing red marks on people's legs. A pest control company can advise on any unidentified marks.
Rodents & Cockroaches - Rodents and cockroaches can enter buildings through large airvents common to older buildings and under doorways, where they live under false floors and in wall cavities. From here they use the network of computer trunking and pipe ducting to travel from floor to floor.
While there is little that can be done to alter the structure of the building, it is imperative that they are given no food source on which to thrive.
Fruit Flies - Small black flies, such as fruit flies, are common to offices and while health risks associated with them are minimal, they are likely to distract and irritate staff.