Germridden Keyboards

For those of us who work in an area that is shared by other workers, here is some advice on how to avoid germs that might cause illness. People who are sick should stay home, but sometimes they are just coming down with something and do not realize it. Even healthy people can contaminate a work area with their hands. A lot of cross-contamination happens when individuals pickup germs from objects and then touch other objects with unsanitary hands.

Common places where germs thrive in the workplace are phones, elevator buttons, door knobs, restrooms, copy and fax machines, pens and pencils, and keyboards. Tests were conducted to see how contaminated these different objects were. By far, shared keyboards harbored more disease-causing germs than a toilet seat. Hard to believe, but true. Different users add their own variety of microbes to the keys and usually the keyboards are not sanitized.

Waterproof keyboards are available. Some can even be put through a dishwasher cycle to clean (but not on the heat cycle). Disinfectants can be used on them also, either disinfectant wipes or spray. A waterproof mouse that can be sanitized protects the user even further. Hospitals, schools, industrial offices, and other places could really prevent some sick days by installing these keyboards