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Is Your Computer Keyboard Cleaner Than Your Toilet?

Alarmingly - the toilet seat!Once again the issue of dirty computer keyboards due to eating food at the workstation and a lack of good personal hygiene has hit the headlines. Research has once again shown that the average office toilet seat is likely to be cleaner than the office keyboards.

Whilst the CWU and the NW BTU H&S Co-ord have raised this issue with employers on many occasions, the lack of good cleaning material in most offices, and an almost non existent cleaning regime amongst computer users; continues to risk the health of office workers.

Add that to the fact that hand cream, cosmetics and other personal toiletries can contaminate not only the keyboard, but the mouse and headsets, and you have what is considered by most to be a minimum health and safety risk environment turning into a high risk area – a battle zone with unseen bugs.

Health risks in the office environment are often confined to concern about stress, or slips, trips and falls; with the reality of germs, coughs, colds and flu spreading like wild fire around the office being ignored and simply not addressed.


Research repeatedly shows that risks in this can be reduced by the implementation of a good cleaning regime and good personal hygiene practice. The germs that linger can cause some serious illness and it comes to something when examining toilet seats finds that they are far less contaminated with bugs than the average computer user’s keyboard and work station.

In some cases being 5 times dirtier than the toilet seats in the same office building.

BBC News and Which? Computing magazine have covered this issue over the last couple of days as keyboards contaminated with more harmful bacteria than the average toilet seat were discovered in a microscopic study of an average London office.

According to the research, people eating at their desks drop crumbs onto their keyboards encouraging bacteria, and dust also settles between the keys, trapping moisture.

Poor personal hygiene, like people not washing their hands, spreads bacteria around and all these conditions are responsible for encouraging the growth of potentially harmful bacteria.

Twelve per cent of the keyboards checked were found to be potential health hazards, harbouring bugs like E coli and S aureus, and one had five times the levels of bacteria found on the toilet seat swabbed for the study, 150 times the acceptable limit.

Equipment carrying such bugs could cause food poisoning.

Microbiologist James Francis of Kingmoor Technical Services who conducted the study says, "These results are generally typical of offices up and down the country.”

The BBC News website reported that out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office's toilet seats.

It becomes even more alarming as the BBC report continues:

 Dr Wilson, a consultant microbiologist at University College London Hospital, told BBC Radio 5 Live sharing a keyboard could be passing on illnesses among office workers.

"If you look at what grows on computer keyboards, and hospitals are worse, believe it or not, it's more or less a reflection of what's in your nose and in your gut," he said.

"Should somebody have a cold in your office, or even have gastroenteritis, you're very likely to pick it up from a keyboard."

Poor personal hygiene, such as not washing hands after going to the toilet, could also be to blame, it said.

Do you really need one of these? - Now Wash Your Hands PosterA survey of more than 4,000 Which? readers found almost half cleaned their keyboards less than once a month and one in ten never did it.

Sarah Kidner, the Editor of Which? Computing says:

"Most people don’t give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC but if you don’t clean your computer you might as well eat your lunch off the toilet. Why not give your PC a spring clean? It’s quite simple to do and could prevent your computer from becoming a health hazard.”

In 2004 , according to a University of Arizona study, office workstations are much dirtier than bathrooms. A computer keyboard can harbor up to 3,295 microbes per square inch, a computer mouse 1,676. By contrast, the average toilet seat contains only 49 microbes per square inch.

Further, researchers at an IT hygiene firm, Techclean, carried out tests and revealed that a typical office keyboard harbours 3,295 germs per square inch — 14 times more than the average lavatory seat.

These are not wussy germs either: diphtheria, thrush, herpes, pneumonia and hepatitis
number among the delights to be found at your fingertips. Listeria, salmonella and the flu virus can live for hours in the recess beneath your space bar.

Think about it: How often do you clean your toilet compared to your computer keyboard?

There are a number of practices that users should implement to keep their computers clean: 

  • Unplug your keyboard, turn it upside down and shake out any loose dust and food crumbs inside. Disinfect the surface with alcohol wipes.
  • Gently wipe surfaces with a soft, lint-free cloth. Lightly dampen (not wet) the cloth with a small amount of water or an approved computer cleaning fluid.
  • Use compressed air in short bursts to blow dust and debris off computer components. Don’t use a cloth to wipe down internal computer components.
  • Shared headphones can can spread germs that can infect a users ears or even spread head lice. Do not share headsets is the advice given by the HSE.
  • The mouse should also be wiped down in the same manner as the keyboard, along with the mouse mat and desk top.
  • Avoid touching computer screens as these can also be a source of germs if people touch the screen with their fingers. These should be regularly cleaned with screen wipes to remove dust and germs.
Source: CWU / NW BTU H&S Co-ord / BBC News / Which? Computing



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