It’s impossible to count, but how many people have gotten sick from Covid, the flu or the common cold from simply touching something that someone else who was sick touched, and then touching your fingers to your mouth, nose or eyes? The easiest way for germs, bacteria, viruses and pathogens to enter your body and make you sick is through your wet orifices, and that’s why we are here to remind you of the top ten places where germs sit and wait to jump onto your fingers and into your body through your eyes, nose or mouth.
Wash your hands with warm water and soap after touching these popular germ-laden places
#1. Money – So easily we forget when we handle money that it’s actually one of the dirtiest surfaces in the universe. Money can trade hands up to 100 times in a day and the odds of at least one of those people being sick are very high, especially during the cold and flu season (now). Whether it’s cash or change, the end result is the same. People sneeze and cough into their hands, they rub their eyes, pick and wipe their nose, pick their teeth and eat food with their hands, and even let their dogs lick their mouth and nostrils. Gross. Then you touch the money they touched and voila. You’re sick.
#2. Touchscreens – How easy it is to forget or not even realize that you’ve touched some automated screen to ring up your groceries, personal care items, household goods or even to pay the bill at the doctor, pharmacy or hospital. Germs are microscopic, that’s why they’re called microorganisms, so it only takes the tip of one finger to touch the pin pad to enter your debit or credit card secret code to pay for your goods and services. Then, you will most likely touch an itchy eye, adjust a contact lens, or shove a piece of gum or a mint in your mouth without even thinking about it. Bam – you just pushed sickness right through your gate, into your “home.”
#3. Restaurant menus – Wait, did you go to the bathroom and wash your hands before you left for the restaurant, or did you wait until you arrived there? Guess what? It doesn’t matter, because as soon as you touch the menu to figure out what you want to eat, you just touched one of the most hand-trafficked places on the planet. Now, most likely, you will touch your food, whether some finger-food appetizer, a sandwich, or you just drop a piece of whatever on the plate, grab it and toss it in your mouth. Researchers at the University of Arizona swabbed menus and found a whopping 185,000 bacterial organisms on them. Maybe, from now on, you should look at the menu, order, then hit the restroom and wash up.
#4. Animals – Americans love their pets. They are unconditional best friends. They’re good for company, entertainment, snuggling and of course, pictures and videos for sharing on social media. What happens, though, when the dog licks the owner’s face, or the cat hops up on the kitchen table after using the litter box? It’s important to wash your hands well after petting, holding or playing fetch with your pet, or anyone else’s pet.
#5. Kitchen sponges – Wow, these things get really nasty. People seem to keep the same ones forever and a day, until they’re chock full of grease, food particles and a million germs (over 300 species of bacteria have been found living in them) that get on your hands, your cookware, your silverware, your plates, your bowls, and then find their way into your body. Buy a bristle brush with a handle and toss out that nasty sponge.
#6. Other people’s pens – Bet you didn’t think of that one. You have to sign for a package, or an invoice, or sign in at a front desk, and then you touch your mouth, nose or eyes, and the person or persons who used that pen before you were sick as dogs. Pens have up to 10 times the germs of an office toilet seat. Let that sink in.
#7. Doorknobs, handrails, poles and handles – go anywhere and the odds are you’re going to touch at least half a dozen. At the office, store, building, bathrooms, homes and public transportation.
#8. Everything at the airport, bus or train terminal – this includes rails, tables, chairs, money, door handles, tray tables and any buttons you push for anything.
#9. Anything at the doctor’s office, clinic or hospital.
#10. People’s hands – it’s too easy to shake someone’s hand or even fist bump and forget you did it. Thirty seconds later you’re touching your face and then they tell you they’ve been fighting a cold, the flu or Covid.
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