Monday, October 7, 2019

The germiest place in your home and the best way to combat those microbes

(CNN)Do you compulsively scrub your toilet for fear of germs? Good for you, but how often do you change your bath and hand towels?
You're well-informed, so you already microwave your germy kitchen sponge. Or should you?
When's the last time you sanitized your refrigerator, scrubbed your microwave handles or bleached your kitchen sink?
Yes, there are microbes everywhere and most are just fine for us, perhaps even beneficial to our microbiomes and immune systems. We don't care about those.
It's the dangerous ones that prompt us to pull out the disinfectants and gloves: gastro and flu viruses, cold bacteria, salmonella, listeria, yeast, mold, staph, fecal matter and E. coli -- to name but a few.
But are you cleaning all the germiest places? Let's take a stroll around your home and find out.
Of course, we start in the bathroom, where we deposit things we'd rather not think about. Surely the toilet is the prime collector of germs, yes? 
No, because we obsessively clean it (or use paper coverings at work), said microbiologist Charles Gerba, a professor of public health, environmental science and immunology at the University of Arizona. Click here to continue reading.

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