Germ Warfare Smart Cleaning Will Limit Your Exposure To The Viruses And Bacteria That Call Your House Home

Now that the sneezy season is upon us, microbiologist Chuck Gerba has some advice for cleaning your house to prevent the spread of germs:

Clean out the kids and send them to Grandma’s.

Just kidding. The reality, though, is that our loved ones — especially the littlest among them — are a big source of the viruses that make us feel lousy this time of year, Gerba says.

In fact, home’s a pretty dangerous place when it comes to exposure to viruses and bacteria, says Gerba, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Arizona. Two-thirds of viruses are caught at home, as are 50 to 80 percent of food-borne illnesses, he says. Your risk is even greater if you have young children.

Nevertheless, he says we can take steps to keep our homes from becoming oversized petri dishes. Our weapon in this germ warfare: smart cleaning.

Gerba should know. He’s the guy who led the well-publicized research that revealed that the typical kitchen sink contains more fecal bacteria than the typical flushed toilet — proving, he says, that your dog is smarter than you think.

The point of housecleaning isn’t to get rid of all the bacteria and viruses that we refer to collectively as germs. The point, Gerba says, is to reduce their levels so they don’t pose a serious risk of illness.

Here’s what he recommends:

The kitchen

Nasty bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella thrive in kitchens. They ride in on foods like raw meat, breed in moist environments such as sponges and dish rags and get spread around by the dubious act of cleaning up.

Reducing those germs is as simple as using disinfectant cleaners. Just switching to household cleaning products that contain disinfectants reduces bacteria by 99 percent, Gerba says.

Chlorine bleach and products that contain it are good choices for cleaning, he says, because bleach kills both viruses and bacteria. Antibacterial products attack only the latter.

Pay special attention to what he calls the hot spots — the sink; the counters next to it; the faucet and refrigerator door handle, because we often touch them with bacteria-laden hands or hang germ-infested dishcloths from them; the bottom of the refrigerator, which catches the meat drips; and the cutting board.

Your hands also spread germs, so be sure to wash them before preparing food and after handling raw meat, Gerba says.

Using a disinfectant cleaner tends to cut down the number of germs that live on the sponge or dish rag, and using a germ-resistant sponge can help, too.

Nevertheless, he recommends changing the dish rag and sanitizing the sponge every three days. Sponges can be microwaved for 30 seconds to kill bacteria, or they can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

(Gerba admits he doesn’t like the way the sponge makes his microwave oven smell, but he’s hesitant about recommending the dishwasher method ever since somebody complained to him that her sponge fell out of the rack, plugged up her drain and flooded her kitchen.)

The bathroom

Most bathrooms in homes are cleaner than you might guess, simply because most people use the right products, Gerba says.

Oddly, though, it’s not unusual to find E. coli in the bathroom sink.

That’s because people often clean the basin with the same rag or sponge they’ve just used on the toilet, he says. If you fill up the sink to wash your face, then, you’re essentially washing it in toilet water.

Ick.

Better to avoid the whole mess by using paper towels to clean the bathroom and throwing them away after cleaning the toilet, he says.

Be sure to use a disinfectant toilet bowl cleaner. Gerba says automatic bowl cleaners that contain bleach also work well.

Be aware, too, that flushing a toilet sends invisible droplets of toilet water spraying all over the bathroom. Unless your name’s Fido, that ought to be incentive enough to put your toothbrush away in the medicine cabinet.

The laundry

Mom probably never told you to wash your hands after using the laundry room, but she should have.

Consider this: Each pair of underpants destined for the washing machine contains about one-tenth gram of bacteria-carrying feces, “which, by weight, is about one-quarter of a Southwest Airlines peanut,” Gerba deadpans. “Some people have more peanuts in their underwear than others.”

If the water isn’t sufficiently hot or doesn’t contain chlorine bleach, those bacteria treat the washing machine as a giant hot tub and engage in unbridled bacterial reproduction.

And you thought the laundry was getting clean.

Transfer that wet laundry from washer to dryer, and the nasties get all over your hands, Gerba says. Set the laundry on top of the dryer, and you’ve spread the germs there for future loads of clothes to pick up.

E. coli won’t survive the heat of the dryer, Gerba says, but other fecal-borne bacteria and viruses will, including salmonella; rotavirus, which causes diarrhea; and the virus that causes hepatitis A.

He recommends washing clothes in the hottest water possible and using bleach if you can. Plan your laundry so you do a bleach load first, which sanitizes the washing machine.

Use a disinfectant cleaner to wipe off the top of the washer and dryer and other surfaces that come into contact with laundry, such as clothes-folding tables and counters, he says. It’s also a good idea to clean laundry baskets and hampers.

If you’re really serious about clean laundry, you can invest in one of those front-loading European washers, which use hot water and an interminable wash cycle.

“Now, your clothes come out doll-size,” Gerba says, “but they’re really clean.”

Misconceptions

People have misconceptions when it comes to cleaning and hygiene.

Here are a few that microbiologist Chuck Gerba has encountered:

Myth: Sexually transmitted diseases can be caught from dirty toilets. Sorry, Gerba says. You can’t use that as an excuse.

That’s not to say you can’t catch anything from toilet seats, so clean your own toilets regularly with a disinfectant, and use tissue-paper toilet seat covers in public restrooms if they’re available. However, he says, “the problem is not gonorrhea; it’s diarrhea.”

Myth: Ammonia and vinegar kill germs. They work fine on dirt, but they do nothing to eliminate bacteria and viruses, Gerba says.

Myth: Telephones and doorknobs spread viruses. This isn’t so much a myth, he says, as it is a common belief that hasn’t been proved because nobody’s done adequate research on it. Besides, most cleaning products don’t kill viruses anyway, he points out.

He doesn’t see any benefit to cleaning phones and doorknobs frequently, although if you’re “really paranoid,” use bleach-based products such as wipes, he says.

Myth: Plastic cutting boards are better than wood, or vice versa. For a while it was thought that wood cutting boards couldn’t be adequately disinfected, then it was found that resins in the wood are actually antimicrobial. The bottom line on which type is better: “It’s a tossup,” Gerba says.

The important thing is to remember that both types of cutting boards can harbor bacteria, so they need to be disinfected after use. Gerba says it’s best to have separate boards for raw meat and all other foods, or to designate each side of the board for a specific purpose. Color-code them or write on them to help you remember, he says.