FEATURE BACTERIA DESK The desk’s sample showed probably the largest range of bacteria, fungi etc. and this is probably due to the wide range of things coming into contact with it on a daily basis. The trend for workers to eat ‘al desko’ is also likely responsible for some of the microorganisms present on this particular plate. PHOTOCOPIER Another point that the experiment highlighted was that the copier seemed to be far dirtier than we would have expected. We concluded that this was likely due the fact it’s used by a wide variety of people but hadn’t been assigned to anybody to be cleaned regularly. When we considered this point against the ease with which illnesses can spread, we realised that the copier would be a prime point of contagion. From this day forward, we vowed that the copier would be sanitised regularly! HOT WATER BOILER Our office boiler also showed some interesting and unique growth that might look different to some of the other samples simply because it is taken from an area kept hotter than most other areas in the office. OFFICE DOOR The door is not as surprising, however, as despite its notable growth it isn’t as extensive as some of the other plates. We deduced this is likely due to the fact it is cleaned everyday by the office’s cleaners. However, it seems that this makes the existing growth even more revealing since it will be based on just a day’s worth of contact and exposure. Again, this can show just how much an object can act as a point of contagion even between thorough cleaning. CHEWED STATIONERY Chewed pens and pencils seem to harbour many germs, even after they’ve been sat ‘unchewed’ for a few days. The problem here is that, if you chew your pen, you’re essentially creating a point of contagion that you then carry around with you. Lend it to a colleague and you could be exposing them to something that makes them ill. On top of all this, if the pen itself becomes contaminated you’re then bringing this contamination straight into your mouth - yuk! 12 DECEMBER / JANUARY 2016 CLEANING HYGIENE TODAY PHONE AND KEYBOARD The phone and keyboard samples are surprising in their lack of development. This may simply be that the surfaces were cleaner than we expected (which we aren’t so sure is the case for the keyboard in particular - look at the mess from under the keys!) Our best guess is that we didn’t let all of the alcohol from the sterilising wipe evaporate, which meant that we probably killed a lot of the bacteria that the swab picked up - resulting in an unrepresentative sample. Either way, the colonies that are present still look pretty gross to us. In the end, we found that most areas in our office were technically dirty and that some places should “ The desk’s sample showed probably the largest range of bacteria, fungi etc. ” probably be cleaned on a more regular basis. It’s worth remembering, however, that microorganisms such as bacteria thrive everywhere, and maintaining sterile conditions is both unrealistic and largely unnecessary, as we live our lives surrounded by billions of bacteria every day. Much of the bacteria we found would originally have been at levels that were unlikely to cause you any harm, but we thought it was interesting to think about areas of the office that could act as points of contagion should anything really harmful and contagious be allowed to grow there.
CHT December/January 2016
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