Marilyn's Photos - Oct 2 2025 - A Toilet is cleaner than this things

 

How do we know that a toilet is cleaner than these things? "A kitchen sponge, kitchen sink, pet food bowls, computer keyboards, carpets, cutting boards, and even cell phones are often dirtier than a toilet seat, as they are breeding grounds for bacteria that are rarely cleaned as aggressively as toilets." That's the summary of a study done comparing various common surfaces for bacteria levels.  Chlorox sponsored the study.  I particularly wondered what it meant  to "clean their toilet aggressively." How would we clean our desk more aggressively.  I imagine scenarios of getting out a toilet brush and scrubbing the desk with it.  We are meant to be alarmed when finding out that a standard desk is 400 times germier than a toilet seat. I guess the "so what" implication occurs with the scenario of eating at your desk.  That is a scenario for "Norovirus: A highly contagious virus that spreads easily through contaminated food, water, or surfaces and is a common cause of gastroenteritis."  But then don't you have to put your hands on the surfaces like the keyboard and desk and then put them in your mouth?  Do you usually put your hands in your mouth to eat?  I don't know.   I guess it depends on table manners and what foods people are eating.   I don't see the likely scenarios of the other two bacteria that could be involved: Staphylococcus aureus: A common bacterium that can lead to skin infections, sinusitis, and, in severe cases, life-threatening conditions like sepsis or meningitis. Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Found on surfaces like keyboards, this can cause pneumonia, especially in people with weakened immune systems. These two seem extremely rare to me, more like thoughts and ideas to ponder. We do have a societal toilet fixation, though.  I consider the presence of so many toilet hacks to be the sign for this: "using common household items like vinegar, baking soda, and cola to clean and deodorize the bowl and tank, applying baby oil to shine fixtures, or preventing rust with fingernail polish on toilet screws. Other hacks involve using Kool-Aid for cleaning the tank, placing a container in the tank to conserve water, and using shaving cream to eliminate odors at the base of the toilet." And all Chlorox probably wanted from their study was for us to buy more wipes for our desk rather than have people try all kinds of things to clean their toilets. This picture of a garden bench at Winterthur came up from a search of my computer for "toilet" - is it the handkerchief petals of the Dove Tree on the ground that caused the system to think this might be toilet tissue? There's AI lurking in there, I'm sure of it.

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