The Yuck Factor

When lunching in your office, you probably worry that dribs and drabs of food will contaminate your desk and keyboard. You should be worrying ab out the opposite phenomena: When you touch your desk, telephone and keyboard -- surfaces that are laden with germs -- and then pick up your sandwich, you are contaminating your food with disease-causing bacteria.

According to a widely cited study of 7,000 work sites by University of Arizona microbiologist Charles Gerba, offices are "the laptop of luxury for germs." A typical telephone, the study showed, had more than 25,000 germs per square inch. A typical desk had 10 million germs. Keyboard and computer mice are filthy too.

Exposure to all these germs may bring on colds and flus, at the least.

So what can you do to eliminate the germs? Wash your hands with soap and water several times a day, especially before eating. Wipe down your desk, phone and other office paraphernalia with an antiseptic spray or wipe them clean on a regular basis. Soap and water would do the job just as well, but you probably don't want to douse your phone in a bucket.

The hardest part is cleaning the keyboard. Glenn Clark, corporate trainer for the Belkin Corp., an electronics maker, offers the following suggestions:

Unplug your keyboard, turn it upside down and shake.

Use a can of compressed air to blow out remaining crumbs and other particles.

Use special computer wipes, available at computer accessory stores, to clean keys and other surfaces. Do not spray with a water or alcohol-based disinfectant, as it can damage the computer components.

-- Michaele Weissman