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The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Is your home a health hazard? 15 surprisingly filthy everyday items, from taps to toothbrushes
Most everyday objects are at least a little bit grimy. They rarely, if ever, make contact with soap or disinfectant – unlike your toilet seat, even though that's the one that's often used as a symbol of filth in studies of household cleanliness. Aside from pathogens that can cause disease and illness, 'for the most part, we're dealing with our own bacteria', says Jason Tetro, microbiologist and author of The Germ Code. This usually isn't a problem, especially for youngish healthy people – but, Tetro adds, 'when they accumulate, even if they are your own, it can lead to things like skin irritability, itchy scalp, cavities [in teeth from bacteria-heavy toothbrushes], that type of thing'. Does it matter that your reusable shopping bag might be carrying faecal bugs? Or that your watch strap is teeming with lifeforms? Are the studies – usually small, and sometimes conducted by cleaning-product companies – scaremongering or a grave matter of public health? Germ experts come clean. After going to the loo, or every time your hands are dirty, you touch the tap before washing them. 'If you don't have those [long lever] elbow taps like they have in hospitals, then you're going to be making your taps really gunky, and lead to the potential for cross-contamination,' says Tetro. Clean bathroom and kitchen taps regularly. In the kitchen, if you're washing your hands after handling raw meat, consider turning the tap on before you start. 'I would suggest you just keep a little stream going, and then you don't have to touch the taps until you've washed your hands properly.' Admittedly, this is wasteful, so you could also make sure you disinfect your kitchen taps afterwards. 'I'm surprised new lifeforms don't evolve in kitchen sponges,' says Chuck Gerba, professor of virology at the University of Arizona. They are prime habitats for microbes. 'They are always wet,' says Markus Egert, professor of microbiology at Hochschule Furtwangen University in Germany. 'They have a huge inner surface where a lot of microbes can grow, and you clean a lot of different stuff with them, so the microbes have a lot of nutrients to feed on. And they are rarely cleaned, so that makes them perfect. That's why there are so many microbes in it within a very short time, billions of microbes. The concentration – not the type of microbes – is similar to a human stool sample.' Studies have shown that sponges can contain harmful bacteria such as salmonella or campylobacter, which can cause severe food poisoning. For elderly people or young children, or those with a weakened immune system, this can be especially dangerous. If you do use one, you could clean it in the microwave. Wet it thoroughly, put a bit of washing-up liquid on it and microwave it for one minute, and then let it dry out well. 'This reduces the number of germs very significantly,' says Egert. But this could eventually prove counterproductive. 'The few microbes that survive probably can grow up very fast and so recolonise the sponge. If you do this several times, our hypothesis is that you select for more pathogenic, more resistant microbes than you had before. So you shouldn't do it too often.' Or preferably don't use one at all – most sponges are made of plastic and aren't biodegradable. One of the most neglected items in the kitchen, says Gerba, is the cutting board. 'People just rinse it off,' he says, 'or they'll cut raw meats and then they'll make a salad on it, and you have all those cuts and crevices from cutting that make it difficult to clean. Probably the most important thing is putting it in a dishwasher, or rinsing and scrubbing it.' 'A toothbrush is going to be mainly oral bacteria,' says Tetro. Some studies have shown a toothbrush can be home to 10m bacteria. 'But the microbiome in your mouth will change over time. If you have a lot of sugary, fatty foods, it may help change your microbiome towards bugs that are not so great, and they'll become even more populous, and then you're just spreading them in your mouth.' Give your toothbrush a clean every day. 'Run very hot water over the brush and underneath for five seconds. You should also be changing your toothbrush about once a month.' Watch out for your toothbrush holder, too, where gunk accumulates. 'All the bacteria in the toothbrush end up growing in the bottom,' says Tetro. Tetro is suspicious of anything named 'brush' that is never cleaned. 'With a hairbrush, it's going to be yeast and fungi. After you've washed your hair, using a [dirty] hairbrush may transfer it into your hair.' This could lead to dandruff, or scalp infections. It should be enough to clean your hairbrush once a month, says Tetro. Sometimes dark, always moist, with water left for hours, warming up. Add to that oral bacteria, food particles and (if you're not a regular handwasher) possibly faecal bacteria, and your water bottle becomes a banquet for germs. If you fill your bottle with protein shakes or sugary drinks, it's more like an all-you-can-eat for bacteria. One study found 20% of water bottles tested contained coliform bacteria (of faecal origin). Another study found an average water bottle had 20.8m colony-forming units – more than 40,000 times the number on a toilet seat. 'If you drink water from a swimming pool, you should expect to drink poop – but, if it's your own water bottle, probably not,' says Tetro. It's best to pour away old water, wash the bottle in hot water and washing-up liquid and, at least once a week, give it a good scrub with a (clean!) brush. Don't forget lids, straws and spouts. Your fancy smartwatch is telling you everything you need to know about your resting heart rate and sleep quality, but it is harbouring a dirty secret – it's teeming with germs. A 2023 study found that, while staphylococci were expected (they're naturally found on skin), there were relatively high rates of pseudonomas bacteria (some variants can cause infections in humans) and 60% had enteric bacteria (found in the intestine), including E coli. Rubber and cloth straps were the worst, with gold and silver straps performing well. You handle them multiple times, drop them on the floor, put them in your pocket, share them with other people, and then jam them in your ears – a warm, dark, moist place, home to your usual bacterial flora, and now the venue for a whole host of germs to party to your playlist. One study that swabbed 50 earphones identified fungi and bacteria, including E coli. Again, anything that comes into contact with human skin is expected to be loaded with bacteria, and a study on spectacles found, unsurprisingly, that nose pads and the parts that touched the ears had higher concentrations. While the bacteria detected wouldn't be a concern to healthy people, the study found about 60% of the bacteria could be risky to people with compromised immune systems. It also identified bacteria linked to eye infections. It found alcohol wipes were the best at decreasing bacterial load, but many opticians say they could damage the lenses and advise warm soapy water and a soft cloth. A 2023 food-handling study, following people who were making turkey burgers from raw meat, swabbed utensils and kitchen surfaces afterwards and found spice jars were the most frequently contaminated, with nearly half of the objects affected. Your salt and pepper shakers may also be giving you more than seasoning – a 2010 study by ABC News found shakers in restaurants were the second-dirtiest items on the table (after menus), and in a 2008 University of Virginia study, which tested objects that had been touched by cold sufferers, traces of the virus were found on all the shakers. 'Reusable bags tend to get contaminated with bacteria from raw meat and produce,' says Gerba. 'Putting them in a car trunk is like creating an incubator for the bacteria to grow in most climates.' In one of his studies where reusable grocery bags were collected from shoppers and tested, more than half contained coliform bacteria, which probably came from raw meat and other produce, and E coli was detected in 8% of bags. When the team deliberately contaminated bags with meat juices and stored them in the boot of a car for a couple of hours, the bacteria increased tenfold. 'They should be washed on a regular basis,' says Gerba. He favours cotton bags. A team from the University of Houston tested light switches, among other areas including bathroom sinks and floors, in hotel rooms and found they were significant harbourers of faecal bacteria. In another test, nearly a quarter of light switches were found to be contaminated with the cold virus an hour after someone with snotty fingers had touched them. Your TV remote might be 15 times more disgusting than your toilet seat. A survey for Churchill, the insurance company, found high levels of faecal bacteria on the remotes swabbed. Other surveys have found that between a quarter and third of people never clean their remote, a device that is touched by an average family of four an estimated 21,000 times a year. True, it's not as if you'll come out of the shower dirtier than you went in, but the curtain may be the dirtiest place in the bathroom. To use our trusty toilet-seat comparison tool, one study found shower curtains had 60 times more bacterial life. That was a laughably small study of three curtains, but it's obvious they're a danger zone – people have disgusting shower habits, such as urinating, and bacteria thrive in warm, wet places. So does mould. 'Shower curtains are disgusting,' says Tetro with a laugh. 'This is, again, one of those things where, if it's your shower, your curtain, who cares, right? But a lot of people will share the shower space. As a result, you are going to have a lot more of those human germs.' And not just from people's hands and faces, he points out. 'It's going to be coming from your whole body, which is why we really should be disinfecting those shower curtains every time we disinfect the tub or the shower stall.' You can also run the shower curtain through the washing machine every so often. You should be mindful of how clean any of your cleaning appliances are, from mouldy washing machines to stinky dishwashers. 'You should be careful when you empty the vacuum cleaner,' says Gerba. In samples of household vacuum cleaner contents, 'we found salmonella in about 10% of them. What you do is you pick up the bacteria and all this nice food for them to eat [in dust and debris], so it becomes a cafeteria for bacteria.' With a bagless cleaner, don't shake it into your bin in the kitchen – do it outside if you can).
CBC
28-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
It takes more than a pandemic to make good handwashing habits stick
You've likely let your handwashing habit slide as the pandemic moved out of the spotlight. Jason Tetro doesn't like it, but he understands. The Canadian microbiologist and handwashing evangelist said the COVID-19 health crisis helped focus people's minds on proper hand hygiene, but even as early March 2020 he was predicting a backslide once the immediate threat of a new virus faded. Surveys on handwashing trends suggest Tetro was right. "I feel vindicated, but at the same time it's really depressing," he said. Tetro, who wrote The Germ Cod e and The Germ Files, said high-touch surfaces like door handles, shared office equipment and cellphones still carry the risk of microbes, so people should wash their hands or at least use sanitizer after touching them. "Unfortunately, a lot of people simply are choosing not to do that because they don't think that there's any COVID there, so they're not going to do it anymore," he said. A pre-pandemic study from the International Journal of Epidemiology yielded the nauseating statistic that only about 51 per cent of people in wealthy countries with greater access to handwashing facilities wash their hands with soap after "potential fecal contact." While there hasn't been a comparable study, a recent National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) survey in the U.S. found 48 percent of adults admitted to forgetting or choosing not to wash their hands at key moments, like after visiting grocery stores, restaurants or health-care facilities. While the methodology used in that survey was different, you might take some relief from the fact that 69 per cent of American adults reported they wash their hands after using the bathroom. But even after the world ground to a halt over a contagious respiratory virus, only one-third report washing their hands with soap after coughing or sneezing. The NFID's campaign says handwashing can help prevent 80 per cent of infectious disease. That message was amplified with signage, social media posts and hand sanitizing stations during the pandemic, but Tetro said it's now common to find those hand sanitizing dispensers empty. "Those nudges were fantastic during the pandemic, but when you take those nudges away you're inadvertently saying that maybe hand hygiene isn't important anymore," he said. "If you're not going to fill them, then take them off the walls." A Canadian survey in 2021 reported more than 90 percent of participants were washing their hands more frequently due to the pandemic, with 63 percent strongly agreeing with that statement. A hospital's handwashing helper Even health-care workers weren't immune from waning hand hygiene, according to a study of Ontario hospitals published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Tetro said more recent studies have shown a net improvement among health professionals. To shore up those gains, The Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus is using 3D imaging sensors installed in the ceiling of their transitional care ward to keep up those nudges, and it's led to a sustained increase in handwashing. The artificially intelligent monitoring systems (AIMS) platform has been programmed to recognize proper handwashing technique. "There's a light, it's that reminder and it just triggers something in your brain," said Sybile Delice-Charlemagne, clinical manager in the hospital's transitional care unit where the "nodes" have been installed for nearly six months. "As I'm washing my hands, I wait for the light to turn green." The nodes are networked to track handwashing as busy staff move from room to room, allowing them to scrub with sanitizer while they walk. "They have an abundance of things to do," said Scott Delaney, CEO of Lumenix, the Ottawa-based company behind AIMS. "Our ability to provide assistance along the way is what is providing that sustained change," he said. Delaney said the system has dramatically slowed potentially deadly outbreaks wherever it's installed. "We've been able to decrease hospital-acquired infections or outbreaks in the wards we're installed [in] by greater than 90 per cent, as well as deliver a 41 per cent increase in hand-hygiene compliance," said Delaney. Delaney said the technology will soon be adopted by the McGill University Health Centre, and will be expanded at The Ottawa Hospital — all while preserving the privacy and anonymity of the people it monitors.
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
You're cleaning your Tupperware wrong! Scientists reveal the simple way to remove orange stains from containers within seconds
Anyone who has used Tupperware to store their food will know just how easily the plastic containers can become stained. And the oily orange tint from pasta sauces and stews seem to be a particularly stubborn blight. But a viral hack circulating on social media claims there is a simple way to remove stains in just seconds. Now, a scientist reveals why this trick works so well and explains how you can say goodbye to those pesky orange marks. According to videos posted on TikTok, all you need to do to remove oily stains is to add water, dish soap, and a paper towel to the container and shake. Once the sealed Tupperware has been sufficiently shaken, you should find yourself with an oily towel and sparkling clean plastic. Jason Tetro, microbiologist and host of the Super Awesome Science Show and author of The Germ Code, told MailOnline: 'The hack works because it's a two-pronged approach to getting rid of the stain.' However, there are a few things you need to do to make sure this works every time. The viral hack circulating on TikTok claims that by adding soap, water, and a paper towel to your container before shaking, you can easily remove any greasy stains Why do plastic containers get stained so easily? Although the surface of a Tupperware container might look similar to other materials, it is very different at the microscopic level. Mr Tetro says: 'Plastic containers, unlike steel and glass, are not completely smooth. 'If you take a look at them under an electron microscope, you'll see pores that can allow oils to get trapped.' This means that plastic containers are more likely to pick up oily stains from your food than glass or ceramic options. Unlike discolouration caused by other substances, these stains are also particularly difficult to remove because of oil's chemical properties. Mr Tetro says: 'The oils are stubborn because they repel water and as such, rinsing and washing won't extract them from those pores.' Water is able to dissolve some substances because it is 'polar', meaning its molecules have areas of different electrical charges. Other polar molecules, like salt, stick to these charged areas, allowing them to dissolve. However, since oils aren't polar, water alone can't dissolve them - which makes oily stains harder to wash away. How does this cleaning hack work? This viral cleaning trick works to remove oily stains because it combines two effective techniques in one. Since water alone can't dissolve oil, you need something that has the right chemical properties to pull the stains out of your Tupperware. Mr Tetro says: 'Dish soap contains what we call a surfactant, and this chemical is excellent at trapping oils inside small, microscopic bubbles known as micelles. 'You can just add the detergent, and you'll get micelles. But if you want to make as many as you can to improve stain removal, then you need to do one thing – shake it up like a Taylor Swift fan! The more you shake, the more micelles you make and the better the stain removal process.' This is why putting water and soap in the container before vigorously shaking is key to helping get the plastic surface clean. Natalie D'Apolito, a spokesperson for the American Cleaning Institute, told MailOnline: 'When combined with dish soap, shaking a paper towel and water inside a plastic storage container will cause agitation inside the container, helping to remove set-in stains by activating the soap and vigorously wiping the inside of the container. 'Another way to think about this is by considering how washing machines agitate, or move, the items inside during a wash cycle.' However, it is important to use an absorbent paper towel rather than any other kind of scrubbing material. Mr Tetro points out that the paper towel acts as 'another kind of trap, but this time for the micelles'. 'The micelles tend to float in the liquid freely and can end up pretty much anywhere, but if you provide a large matrix for them to get trapped, then you can prevent them from going back into the pores,' says Mr Tetro. 'First, the detergent makes all those micelles that trap the oil, and the paper towel traps those micelles so that they don't end up going back into the pores when you rinse the container.' How to make this cleaning trick work If you want to use this trick yourself, there are a few factors to bear in mind. First, you need to clean the container as soon as possible to have the best chance of removing any stains. While the micelles in the soap are effective at breaking down oils, there is a limit to how effective they can be. The longer the oils are on the plastic, the longer they have to seep into the pores, and the harder the stain will be to remove. 'The sooner you can clean stains, the better the process will be,' says Mr Tetro. Likewise, when a Tupperware container is heated, the plastic softens and the porous surface expands slightly, allowing oils to penetrate even further. Ms D'Apolito says this can be caused by microwaving a container with food inside or by the residual heat from warm food. So, if you want to ensure your containers are easy to clean, don't use them in the microwave and allow food to cool completely before storing it.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Can you eat dyed Easter eggs?
Eggs: Love them or loathe them, this somewhat controversial food has a big cultural impact. As Easter approaches, eggs become the focal point of various celebrations, from egg dyeing to traditional egg hunts (even if these eggs are often made of plastic). Yet while eggs may be everywhere this spring, not everyone is keen on consuming them, including this time of year. Whether you're unsure about eggs being part of a healthy diet or just the safety of eating them after they've been dipped in vibrant dye, there are plenty of myths to dispel. With Easter arriving this Sunday, experts spoke to Yahoo Life about all things egg. Here's what you need to know. Keith Warriner, professor of food science at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, tells Yahoo Life that eggshells have more than 4,000 pores, meaning they readily take up paint. That's why, if you are decorating your eggs at Easter, it's best to 'stick with food colorings that are safe.' Other paints, such as acrylic, contain solvents that can get into your hard-boiled eggs — and therefore into your body if you consume them. If you want to be on the safest side, Warriner suggests using vegetable extracts to dye your eggs, noting that beetroot, for example, gives a purple color, albeit at a 'lower intensity when compared with food coloring.' Paint isn't the only thing you should be concerned about, Jason Tetro, microbiologist and author of The Germ Code, tells Yahoo Life. The process of dyeing eggs and leaving them out on display can also leave you vulnerable to foodborne illness. 'Leaving hard-boiled eggs at room temperature for more than two hours can lead to bacterial growth,' he says. 'This may not be enough time to dye all the eggs, so it's best to rotate them in and out of the fridge.' Unfortunately, Tetro adds, 'if you have dyed eggs out in the open for more than three hours, they may look beautiful, but they are no longer safe to eat.' Dr. Kirsten Bechtel, professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, says that you can't keep hard-boiled eggs as long as you could uncooked eggs — whether they are dyed or not. Hard-boiled eggs should be tossed after seven days in the refrigerator, assuming you've followed all previous food safety guidelines. The idea that eggs have too much cholesterol has some people avoiding them for breakfast. But Kelli George, registered dietitian and director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics at West Virginia University, says, 'Eat the eggs,' adding that cholesterol in general gets a bad rap. 'Cholesterol is a type of fat that's found in our bodies and in food, and it's not all bad,' she tells Yahoo Life. 'We need cholesterol — our body even makes it. Health problems only arise when we have too much cholesterol traveling in our blood, and that is most commonly due to lack of physical activity, eating a lot of saturated fat, which are found in foods like fatty cuts of meat, full-fat dairy and coconut oil, and eating a diet low in fiber.' George says that the cholesterol found in eggs, or any food, has 'almost no impact on the cholesterol traveling in our bloodstream.' Therefore she says it 'doesn't cause health-related issues like high blood cholesterol or heart disease.' Not necessarily. Despite the common belief that you should limit your egg intake, the American Heart Association says suggests eating one egg every day (or two egg whites, because only the yolks contain cholesterol) for those who like eggs. George notes that just two eggs have about 14 grams of protein, which can keep you satiated, as well as 'vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals such as choline, selenium, folate, phosphorous, vitamin A, lutein and zeaxanthin.' One thing you should limit, however, is the amount of raw eggs you consume. For most people, this is not an issue — but if you do consume raw eggs, Kelli warns that you should 'not eat one to two dozen raw eggs regularly, because that can cause a biotin deficiency.' That's because raw eggs contain a protein called avidin, which binds with biotin and can interfere with the absorption of biotin in the digestive system. But, in general, Kelli says that even people with heart disease can 'absolutely' eat eggs, if they enjoy them.
