Obviously, certain areas of your home or office are dirtier than others, such as toilet seats and trash cans.
However, your phone, a pile of laundry in your bedroom, and even the carts at the grocery store are covered in bacteria that can lead to infections and other lasting health problems.
We touch our phones almost 100 times a day, but experts warn the devices harbor 10 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat.
The coffee cup in the office could be teeming with E. coli, which sickens more than 250,000 Americans every year.
And even if you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, you’re spreading more than 1,000 germs.
Below, DailyMail.com reveals some of the dirtiest surfaces you touch every day.
Shopping carts
Grocery store carts can be covered in feces and harbor more bacteria than a toilet seat.
Dr. Kunal Sood, an acute and chronic pain physician in Maryland, shared a TikTok with his two million followers warning about the dangers of shopping carts.
Dr. Sood claimed that supermarket shopping carts can be a source of infections such as hand, foot and mouth disease, which causes mouth sores and rashes on the hands and feet.
He cited a study by the University of Arizonawhich showed that more than 75 percent of shopping carts tested positive for fecal bacteria.
“In fact, the study found that the shopping carts were even dirtier than the toilets because the toilets were more likely to be cleaned than the shopping trolleys,” Dr Sood said.
He recommended placing a disinfectant wipe on the cart before use.
Phones
We answer our phones almost 100 times a day, but they harbor 10 times more bacteria than toilet seats
Career company details Zippia found that the average American checks their phone about 96 times a day, or once every 10 to 12 minutes.
This can make you vulnerable to several types of bacteria, including staph, which causes staph infections, and MRA, a largely antibiotic-resistant infection that can spread to the bloodstream, lungs, heart, bones, and joints if left untreated.
A study published in the journal Bacteria found that high school students’ cell phones were packed with 17,000 bacterial gene copies.
And research from the University of Arizona has shown that cell phones do 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats.
Washing your hands and keeping your phone out of the bathroom, where germs are often more common, can help reduce germs.
Toothbrush holder
Although toothbrushes are meant to keep your teeth clean, toothbrush holders themselves are rarely cleaned, making them a breeding ground for germs.
This is because the retainer comes into contact with a wet toothbrush at least twice a day and that moisture can cause yeast and mold to grow.
Findings from the independent public health organization NSF International found that more than a quarter of toothbrush holders harbor bacteria such as E. coli.
E. coli are bacteria that are commonly found in the intestines of animals such as cattle, goats, sheep and deer. While most are harmless, some can cause a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms, including stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and vomiting.
The exact figures vary, but it is estimated that E. coli infections cause approximately 265,000 illnesses and 100 deaths per year.
Coffee cups in the office
That coffee cup you keep in the office may get rinsed out at the end of the day, but it’s still a haven for germs.
A University of Arizona study suggested this could be due to common kitchen sponges that are rarely replaced. These may contain coliform bacteria, including E. coli.
Dr. Jeffrey Starke, an infectious disease physician at Texas Children’s Hospital, told the Wall Street Journal adding sugar and creamer to your coffee can lead to more bacteria lurking there, because “standing liquid can encourage environmental pathogens, especially mold, to grow.”
Taking the mug home and running it through the dishwasher can help kill the bacteria by the steam and high heat.
Birthday cake
Blowing out birthday candles can spread more than 1,000 types of bacteria
Blowing out candles on your birthday seems harmless, but if a whole group helps out, it can lead to enormous amounts of bacteria.
A 2017 study in the Journal of Food Research When you blow out the candles, it spreads 1,400 percent – 15 times – more bacteria onto the icing than if they had not been extinguished.
Dr. Paul Dawson, a food safety expert at Clemson University who conducted the study, said CNN: ‘The amount of bacteria varies greatly from person to person, depending on how careless someone is when blowing out the candles, but it does occur.
“I don’t know what the chances are of this happening, but if someone is sick, has an illness and blows on their birthday cake, there will be bacterial transmission.”
Dr. However, Dawson said it’s probably not dangerous to eat this cake unless you have a weakened immune system, are elderly or have an underlying illness.
The laundry
Several viruses, including rotavirus, have been shown to survive the wash cycle. Doing laundry at higher temperatures can kill these
Although laundry is intended to remove dirt and contaminants from clothing, according to research published in the journal Applied and environmental microbiology showed that several viruses can survive the spin cycle.
The researchers found that adenovirus, rotavirus and hepatitis A all survived through washing and drying.
Adenoviruses are a group of respiratory diseases that cause coughing, fever, runny nose and pneumonia.
Rotavirus is highly contagious and usually affects children under the age of five. It leads to severe diarrhea, vomiting and black stools. However, it is much less common in the US than in other countries, killing 20 to 40 children annually, compared to 600,000 worldwide.
If clothes remain wet for more than 30 minutes, it is best to run another cycle on high heat to kill any remaining germs.
If you fold clean clothes on a surface, make sure you wipe them down first.