Everything's contaminated redux (repost)

This post was originally published at webeasties.wordpress.com

Have you noticed the recent spate of people coming down with terrifying bacterial infections contracted at Apple stores? Yeah, me neither. Still:

A leading Australian expert in infectious diseases says people who use display iPads and iPhones at Apple stores are risking serious infections and the company should do more to maintain hygiene[...]

"You wouldn't have hundreds of people using the same glass or cup, but theoretically if hundreds of people share the same keyboard or touch pad, then effectively that's what you're doing," Collignon said in a phone interview.

This, following an "investigation" in June by the New York Daily News that showed high levels of various germs on various gadgets in Apple stores. "Ew," goes one quote from a random person coming out of the store. So should we all start wearing surgical gloves and gas masks when going to the Apple store?

As I've said before - the more shocking result would be if they HADN'T found any bacteria. Everything's contaminated, period. Maybe since the Apple store seems so pristine and sterile, it's rife for this kind of criticism. But seriously, it's retarded. Swab any door handle, kitchen countertop, or human forearm and you'd likely be able to write the same sort of scare story. But you don't generally see people walking around on perpetual regimins of broad-spectrum antibiotics.

A separate test of a sample of 30 mobile phones, conducted by a hygiene expert at Britain's Which? magazine, found that the average handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a flush handle in a men's toilet.

Well, no shit (pun only partially intended). Any half-way decent bathroom is cleaned at least once a day with some serious de-sterilizing cleansers. Unless some guy crapped on his hand and then flushed the toilet just before this test was taken - I would imagine the flush handle to be one of the cleanest locations you could survey.

So relax, play with the pretty gadgets, and if you're really scared, just make sure you use a Dyson hand dryer after you wash your hands.