The Dirtiest Places at Home, Work and in Public
Your kitchen sink may be dirtier than your toilet seat
Okay, I’ve got a strong stomach. But these even grossed me out!
Yes, I knew not everything in this world was clean, but I was shocked at some of the dirtiest places on this list.
Putting together this list of the germiest places in everyday life has definitely changed my outlook, since this “dirty dozen” is a list of serious bacteria, parasite, and disease hot spots.
If you thought the toilet seat was nasty, get a load of these places … and then DON’T MISS the free report at the end!
1. Your Kitchen Sink
Old dishes with rotting traces of decaying food particles, bacteria from poorly washed hands, and toxic chemicals from “cleaners” all add up to make the kitchen sink one of the nastiest places in your house. It may look shiny and clean, but at the microscopic level, scientists run scared from the sink.
2. Door Handles
At home, at work, and anywhere in public, door handles are something you definitely don’t want to touch. Everybody puts a hand on them, adding layers of grime, bacteria, and parasites to their surfaces. Disease trackers say door handles are often responsible for flu and outbreaks, but note that anti-bacterial wipes usually can’t kill all the germs that build up on the handle.
3. Gas Pumps
The humble gas pump is one of the dirtiest places in America — a study by the University of Arizona found that 71% of gas pump handles are “highly contaminated” with disease causing germs. Evidently, it’s not just the price at the pump that will kill you … yuck!
4. Shopping Cart Handles
As long as we’re talking about handles, it turns out shopping cart handles are also one of the germiest places adults put their hands. No wonder higher end grocery stores offer disinfectant wipes for shoppers! They’re trying to help you protect against raw food parasites as well as every kind of human germ.
5. Playgrounds
Concerned parents worry that playgrounds are dangerous — and they are, but not for the reasons most think. Let’s face it — kids are dirty little germ-magnets who pick their noses, wet their pants, and don’t think twice about sneezing all over their toys. Traces of blood from skinned knees, old vomit from getting dizzy on the merry-go-round, and exploded diapers in the sandbox make roundworms, E. Coli, and salmonella some of the nicer things playgrounds harbor.
6. ATMs
The buttons on the ATM are horribly polluted. They earn a spot as one of the dirtiest places in our lives because they are rarely (if ever) cleaned between users. Outdoor ATM keypads also pick up environmental toxins on top of the grime from thousands of PINs being entered every day.
7. Hotel Television Remotes
Hotel television remotes aren’t changed daily like towels, so if one sick person stays in the room, their viruses linger. Researchers found that a single overnight stay by a volunteer with a cold virus was enough to keep remotes, door handles, and faucets filthy for weeks. The worst part is most hotel guests reach straight for the remote as soon as they check in and never suspect they’ve just welcomed a set of invading germs to their bodies.
8. Computer Keyboards
The sweat and oil from your fingers makes a nice home for germs, bacteria, and viruses. If you eat and type (guilty!) it adds bacteria from decaying food to the mix. Every additional person who uses the keyboard brings their own germs with them, making shared public keyboards like at your public library toxic disease zones.
9. Shared Office Phones
Office phones are the worst offenders and germiest places in the office, although any communal office equipment (fax machine, photocopier, water faucet / bottled water handle) functions as a germ farm. Phones go above and beyond to get dirty, blending saliva, mucous, and hand germs to encourage bacteria to multiply quickly.
10. Your Personal Cell Phone
Oh, you thought you’d just use your own phone to be safe? Think again — studies have shown personal cell phones are actually far dirtier than toilets. You might as well kiss a toilet seat —at least it gets scrubbed regularly!
11. Handbags
Handbags and briefcases go with you everywhere, plopped casually on the floor whenever they’re unneeded. Along with what they pick up on their outsides from restaurant, store, and car floors, there’s your own personal germs festering away inside. Old tissues, half-eaten snacks, dirty coins, and of course, your cell phone, all contribute to a portable disease factory that is cleaned just once or twice a year.
12. Your Bathtub
Rounding out the “dirty dozen” is your bathtub. It’s not a place to get clean — quite the opposite. While 6% of garbage cans carry staphylococcus bacteria, it was found in 26% of bathtubs tested by scientists. In fact, bathtubs usually have upwards of 100,000 bacteria per square inch.
Not even a weekly bleach treatment and scrub can kill all the bacteria in your tub … nor do anti-bacterial wipes save you from the germs on door handles, keyboards, or hotel remotes. Soap won’t make a dent on the parasites kids bring back from the playground, and you can’t wash your hands enough to protect yourself against your handbag.
There’s just one thing that will really, truly kill all the germs, parasites, and bacteria from the 12 germiest places in public, home, and work — and after getting so grossed out, I just had to share this special report to tell you exactly how it works.
