8 Ways to Avoid Germs.
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We are often forced to work much like rats in a maze, or as one haughty executive has put it, like fish in an aquarium. He meant that, if we are more crowded than ever, it doesn’t matter, since we are infinitely adaptable as a species ourselves. Rather than comment further, I will let that stand on its own.
Germs — bacteria and viruses — not only threaten us, they can kill.
New scientific evidence is emerging that germs have been linked to heart disease and even cancer.
Do you have a program for limiting and reducing the number of germs that touch your body?
Along with the high stress that such overcrowding produces, there are basically three reasons why we catch our coworkers’ germs and become ill ourselves…
The winter cold and flu season may be upon us, but fighting germs is a yearlong effort.
Recently, WebMD magazine offered some helpful tips for minimizing your chances of picking up a bad bug. Some of their findings are most surprising!
• The arrangement of desks/workstations/open cubicles, whatever they’re called where you work, often leaves much to be desired. Employees are frequently crammed into workstations that are too small for comfort, even on an open floor. Not only is there inadequate desktop space for paperwork, manuals, file trays, and other office tools, the arrangement puts people much too close to each other, like eggs in an egg carton, in fact.
Here are some ways to stop germs:
1. Don’t Touch the First Floor Elevator Button!
In an elevator, the first-floor button harbors the most germs because more people touch it than any other button. If you can, let someone else push it so you don’t have to touch it, said Charles Gerba, Ph.D., professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona.
A sneeze not caught by an adequately sized tissue can travel 3 to 6 feet at 100 to 150 mph, also spraying somewhat to the sides. Not much chance of ducking one of those, especially if your coworker sits facing you. Not that having a sneeze hurled at your back is anything but disgusting, but you’re less likely to get sick from that one.
If you’re alone, use your elbow instead of your finger to press the button. [Use your elbow even if others are there. Who cares if they think you're a little strange!]
2. Dangerous Shopping Cart Handles.
Shopping cart handles are prime culprits in the spread of germs.
• Even in today’s supposedly educated society, it’s quite amazing how many people don’t wash their hands. This includes “rank-and-file” people, managers, and yes, my dears, church ladies on Sundays. Of course, in an emergency, such as having to leave a building due to the fire horn going off, hygiene is obviously going to take a backseat to survival.
Some supermarkets now offer germ-killing towelette dispensers in the cart area. Bring your own if they don’t. Use them to sanitize the cart handle — and never put fresh produce in the cart seat, where diaper-aged children often sit.
3. Watch Those Escalator Handrails.
Escalator handrails are loaded with germs. Don’t touch them if you can manage without it, Gerba advises.
Under all other circumstances, we all need to wash our hands frequently during the day, and especially after visiting the restroom. We can also protect ourselves and protect others, by keeping a bottle of “waterless” hand sanitizer at our desks and using it, when we’ve been sneezing. We can use disinfectant wipes to clean the handset or headset of the phone, our computer keyboards, and anything else we might have touched with contaminated hands or fingers.
4. Use the First Toilet.
Research shows that most people use the middle stall in public bathrooms, so avoid those. More use means they’re the dirtiest and have the most germs.
5. Office Coffee Pots Dripping With Disease.
Your office coffee pot and mug may have been cleaned with a sponge dripping with germs (more on these later).
• Given the responsibilities and overwork that most of us deal with in today’s world, our own health may not be as robust as it once could have been, regardless of our age. However, we can remedy that!
Hang on to your own mug, and use a dishwasher when it’s time to clean it. Another trick: Keep apple cider vinegar in the office and pour a water-cider solution through the coffee machine weekly. It will help kill bacteria.
6. Kitchen Woes.
A worn-out body and nerves, and a run-down immune system, leave us more susceptible to illness, whether waterborne, airborne or carelessly plastered on doorknobs. Sickness can be nature’s way of making us slow down and rest, but it’s still better to do everything we can to avoid illnesses.
Be aware that kitchen sponges, dishcloths, the kitchen and bathroom sinks, cutting boards, and even the bathroom floor carry more germs than the toilet seat.
New research suggests that if you want to sterilize your sponge, put it in the microwave for two minutes.
Among the most positive steps we can take now are:
• eating a balanced diet (forget the fads),
• getting enough sleep (“Americans” are severely sleep-deprived), and finding a way to exercise a little every day.
A team of engineering researchers at the University of Florida found that two minutes of microwaving on full power killed or inactivated more than 99 percent of bacteria, viruses, or parasites, as well as spores, on a kitchen sponge.
7. Your Desk Is Dirtier Than the Toilet.
Get this: the typical office desk area has 400 times the amount of bacteria than the average toilet seat. Worst offenders: first, the office phone.
About that exercise—it can seem impossible to find the time, when you’re working long hours. Even so, from experience I’ve learned that just walking around the parking lot or around the block, for 10 or 15 minutes at lunchtime, tones the muscles. Not only does this make you feel a lot better, the muscles burn more calories. You can walk before or after you eat lunch, whatever works best for your digestive system. The important thing is to take care of yourself, so that you don’t easily catch your coworkers’ germs… [read more]
Then the desk. Finally, the keyboard. Use a disinfectant wipe to clean the desktop, computer keyboard, and phone.
8. Avoid Hand Shaking, Kissing.
This may be an impossibility for some. But try to avoid shaking hands or kissing during the flu season.
While there are many steps in preventing disease, perhaps the most important is to wash your hands frequently.
Every day you see television commercials for the latest germ-killing products on the market. Companies are constantly reminding you of the pesky, persistent bacteria that apparently attacks your home throughout the day. It’s remarkable that something so small, that you can only see with it a microscope, can be so harmful! But germs are real. However, you have to know what they are exactly to truly combat them. Here’s a guide to germs and how you can keep them out of your kitchen in particular.
Scrub your hands with warm water and soap for at least 15 to 20 seconds after using the bathroom; eating, working, or playing outdoors; playing with pets; or coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose. Anything less than 15 seconds won’t do the job.
Incredibly, 95 percent of people say they wash their hands after using the bathroom, but only 67 percent really do it. Worse, only 33 percent bother to use soap, and only 16 percent wash their hands long enough to remove germs.
One last caveat: Everyone is doing the “antibacterial craze” — getting soaps and wipes that kill germs.
Bathrooms have a bad reputation for hosting threatening germs, but this reputation is not really earned. Kitchens are where the majority of germs in your house are located. And that’s why it’s so important not to ignore them. It’s easy to forget that the invisible little buggers are lurking behind every corner, but if you do, they will certainly make your life a lot tougher… [read more]
Dr. Russell Blaylock suggests occasional use of these products is fine, but frequent use may be bad.
Why?
The antibacterials also kill the good bacteria on your skin that your body needs to defend against the bad bacteria.
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