5 Office Germ hot spots

Office's Top 5 Germ Hot Spots

We all know the virtues of a clean office, but with summer here and things heating up – we could all soon be made painfully aware of the pitfalls of not keeping up appearances in workplace.

 

In a study by Dr. Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, and sponsored by consumer product company Kimberly-Clark – the top 5 most germ-infested places in an everyday office have been revealed – and they’re not where you’d think.

 

Prepare to stock up on hand-sanitiser, and start writing up a request to HR for a sterile oxygen tent, here’s your office’s five biggest germ hot-spots.

 

5. Water Fountain Buttons

Whether attached to a bottle or plumbed into the mains, the dispenser buttons on water fountains are apparently something you might want to reconsider touching with bare hands.

 

When tested for levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP, a molecule present in all animal, vegetable, bacterial, yeast and mold cells.) 23% boasted ratings of 300 or more (indicating they need a right good clean!) and 53% scored 100 or more, suggesting they could be cleaner.

 

4. Refrigerator Door Handles

The kitchen; where we all generally like things to be clean. Alas, the fridge which we trust to keep our food at it’s best turns out to be another hotbed for bacteria. Or it’s handles, at least.

 

26% of fridge doors were in dire need of cleaning, while 69% scored over 100 ATP, and need swift wipe-down.

 

3. Keyboards

Here at Greenfield Cleaning we couldn’t be more aware of the perils lie beneath the keys, so it’s no surprise to see keyboards so high up on the list.

 

With more people taking lunch at their desk, it’s no surprise to discover that 29% of keyboards scored over 300 ATP, whilst 69% scored over 180 overall.

 

2. Microwave Door Handles

We imagine a few eyebrows are being raised here by those of you who realise the natural progression of touching a microwave door handle is either handling or eating food.

 

And we’d also imagine those eyebrows would be raised further by the statistic that 48% scored at the ’severe’ over 300 ATP mark, whilst 80% had readings over 100.

 

1. Break Room Sink Handles

Everything is shared in the break room. Everything except the responsibility to keep it clean, apparently.

 

A staggering 75% of break room sink handles racked up scored over 300 ATP, whilst 91% could be cleaner. We’d go an wash our hands right now, but…

 

Here at Greenfield Cleaning we know how important office cleaning is – so make sure that your office environment is free from germ hot-spots, completely by giving one of our friendly team a call on or e-mail us at