Warren County Connection A Publication of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Warren County
November 2019
Are the Germs in Your House Making You Sick? Germs surround us everywhere; that’s a fact of life. But there are some places—even in your own home—that are breeding grounds for bacteria. Let’s take a careful look at what the evidence says about where the germs live in your house.
In this issue:
cause a typical cleaning job—whether First, can you guess the worst offend- microwaving the sponge, dousing it in er for breeding germs? It’s not the a cleaner, or running it through the toilet seat or even the floor—it’s your laundry—gets rid of the weaker bactekitchen sponge. A study published ria, leading more space for the strongin Nature’s Scientific Reports investi- er bacteria to reproduce. gated which and how many bacteria typically live in a kitchen sponge, and Your best bet? Throw out your kitchthe best way to clean them. en sponge every week and start with a new one. The study found that as many as 362 different species of bacteria live inside Now that we’ve tackled the germyan average kitchen sponge, and there kitchen sponge, let’s move onto your are a lot of them—about 82 billion in kitchen floor. You’ve undoubtedly a cubic inch of space. In case you’re heard of the five-second rule, which counting, that’s about the same num- means if you pick up dropped food ber of bacteria found in a human within five seconds of it hitting the stool sample. Many of these bacteria floor, it’s still okay to eat. are harmless to people with normal A microbiologist at Rutgers University immune systems. But if you’ve used your sponge to wipe up a drip of raw led a study to find out if this rule is sciegg or some dirt from fruit and vege- entifically sound. His study team testtables, it can harbor bacteria that will ed four different foods—watermelon, bread, buttered bread and gummy make you sick. candy—on four different surfaces— Using a sponge to wipe down kitchen stainless steel, ceramic tile, wood and surfaces just spreads these bacteria— carpet—for four lengths of time—less to the inside of your microwave, your than one second, five seconds, 30 secrefrigerator’s handle, or your kitchen onds and five minutes. counter. Furthermore, the study found that trying to clean a sponge can actu- They found that food that touched ally lead to more bacteria. That’s be-
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Preparing Roses for Winter
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Winter Squash
4
Growing Herbs Indoors
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Lives Intertwined” Pets, 7 People, and ‘One Health’ Helping Children Cope With a Death in the Family
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Tips to Help Keep Your 9 House Clean All Winter Are You Ready to Start Exercising?
10
Orange Soup
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Special points of interest:
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