Clean Your Laptop Keyboard to Avoid Getting Sick

Your laptop keyboard is likely teeming with bacteria, especially if you’re a guy, Sciencereported June 4.

More than 500 types of bacteria thrived on Laptop Keyboard in a sample of offices in San Francisco, New York, and Tucson, and men’s keyboards tended to be 10- to 20-percent more bacteria-ridden than those of their female co-workers, researchers from the University of Arizona and San Diego State University find.

It makes sense: If doorknobs are germier than toilet seats because they get so much hand contact, so would the thing you spend all day pounding away at with the tips of your fingers.

And yes, in case you were wondering, “humans were clearly the primary source of office bacterial contamination,” the study authors say.

While most bacteria found were not opportunistic and are not likely to make you sick, some were, and there could be more harmful bacteria in offices that regularly have sick workers, researchers say.