Keyboards 'Contain 20,000 More Bacteria Than a Toilet Bowl' — New Research

Toilet seats, pet toys and money are all considered to be dirty and bacteria-ridden.

But we often forget how our everyday working environment can be home to some potentially nasty bugs. 


New research has revealed our worst fear - get your anti-bacterial handwash and wipes ready. 

Keyboards harbour 20,000 times more bacteria than a toilet bowl, experts claim.

While your mouse is 45,000 times more contaminated than the flush handle.

And the ID badge you use to get in and out of work contains the most bacteria, a study revealed.

The simple security gadget was found to have 243 times more bacteria than a common pet toy.  

Researchers from CBT Nuggets - an IT training website based in Oregon, United States - tested everyday working essentials to determine how much bacteria they carried.

They tested five keyboards, trackpads, mouses, electronic badges and phones to determine their average colony-forming units per square inch.

Electronic badges contained 4,620,000 bacteria per square inch while trackpads had just 810 - on average. 

Researchers from CBT nuggets - an IT training website - found security badges contain the most amount of bacteria per square inch on five everyday bits of working equipment

They found several types of bacteria had invaded our working and persona lives, including bacilli, gram-positive cocci, gram-positive rods and gram-negative rods.

The former two are responsible for the most sickness bugs - as bacilli are common in food poisoning cases and gram-positive cocci can cause Streptoccal infections. 


Daily Mail