Who doesn’t like to dip dip dip the teabag in the boiling hot water and enjoy a refreshing hot cup of tea?
It sure is refreshing and gives you a few minutes to chit-chat with co-workers while you sip on the bracing beverage till the last drop.
But what might come as a shocker to tea lovers who gulp down several cups at the office, a new study has found that office teabags can carry as many as 17 times more germs than a toilet seat!
It is indeed shocking and yucky too!
If we take into account the average bacterial reading, scientists say the average bacterial reading on an office teabag was 3,785 whereas a toilet seat had only 220.
The study was carried out by the Initial Washroom Hygiene. It analysed the bacterial readings of kitchen utensils and appliances to come across these readings.
Other pieces of kitchen equipment also scored very high with the bacterial readings averaging at 2,483 on kettle handles, 1,746 on the rim of a used mug, and 1,592 on a fridge door handle.
The study evaluated 1,000 workers and found that 80 percent of people working in an office would not care to wash their hands before making drinks for colleagues.
Dr Peter Barratt of Initial Washroom Hygiene insists that offices should be more aware of the levels of hygiene in their common kitchens.
Barratt says, “If you stop to think about the number of different hands that touch things such as the kettle handle, tea bag box lid, mugs, and so on, the potential for cross contamination really adds up.”
He further adds that using anti-bacterial wipes on kitchen surfaces and regularly cleaning the mug can pay huge dividends in terms of maintaining a healthy workforce.