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With
the addition of CR4's Chemistry Courtship blog there are a lot more
conversations around the office of a "man versus woman" nature. HUSH and I don't
always agree obviously and it leads to some entertaining conversations that our
good friend, cheme_wordsmithy, generally
breaks up with his words of wisdom. Now, I swear I didn't plan this, but
recently a study came out that showed men's offices were dirtier than women's. It
also disclosed the dirtiest items in the office space, as well as the types of
bacteria you have hovering all around you.
Image
Credit: flintstudio.com
A
group of researchers from San Diego University and the University of Arizona
teamed up to observe and test the
bacteria in offices in three metropolitan areas: New York,
Tucson, and San Francisco. I've talked about the dangers of sitting for a long
period of time (and to be fair, I also talked about the dangers of being in the
sun too long), but I was astonished to read that people in developed countries spending
approximately 90% of their lives indoors. What's even more disturbing is the
amount of bacteria that is deposited and allowed to grow in an office.
The
group took 450 samples from 90 offices throughout the three cities. Through
their analysis, they were able to identify significant differences in the
amount of bacteria between offices inhabited by men or women, the surface type,
and between the cities. Significant difference in bacterial diversity was found
between the Tucson area and New York and San Francisco (NY and San Francisco
were indistinguishable).
Strep bacteria. Image Credit:microbwiki.com
More
than 500 bacterial genera from 20 different bacterial divisions were
identified. Most of the bacteria came from human skin, and nasal, oral, or intestinal
cavities. These bacteria included Streptococcus
(responsible for strep throat),
Corynebacterium (responsible for diphtheria), Flavimonas, Lactobacillus, and members of the Burkholderiales.
Oral bacterial usually consists of Prevotell, neisseria, Pseudomonas, Actinomyces. Fortunately
most of the bacteria found will only make you sick if you already have a very
weak immune system.
Why
does an office of a man have more bacteria than that of a woman? The research
team speculates it's because men are big and dirty. Just kidding. Men are known
to wash their hands
and brush their teeth less frequently. But most of the bacteria found from
skin is due to the larger body size of men in general. More skin = more skin
related bacteria. I personally was surprised to learn that the dirtiest things
in the office are the chairs and phones, while the desktop keyboard and mouse are
slightly lower in their abundance of bacteria.
MadMen office. Image Credit:
cinechronicle.com
So
there you have it. I swear it wasn't planned. It is merely a scientific study
done on the presence of bacteria in offices. You probably won't get sick from
the bacterium that is left lingering in your office. Due to the cool dry air,
bacteria don't grow well in an office environment. But still, you may want to
give your chair and phone a once over with a Clorox wipe (especially if you
share the office with a guy).
Resources
Office bacteria
all around us, especially in men's offices
Wikipedia
for bacteria information.
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