Anyone feel like taking a leak on their keyboard?

This AM in the Ottawa Sun, I read a disturbing article stating that a study done by the University of Arizona concluded that half of workplace keyboards tested positive for urine.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, gross.

I mean food crumbs I could see, but urine... seriously gross. As I am presently typing this post from my workplace keyboard (on my lunch hour), all I want to do is cringe, and heavily apply the One Step hand sanitizer. As I look closely at the keyboard, I see particles of dust, eyelashes, and god knows what else, thus making me think... what the 'H' is on my hands - that would be the same hands that I touch my face with, scratch my neck with, and run my fingers through my hair with?

Gross. Gross. Gross.

If you sit and think about it, while working we sometimes sneeze in the middle of typing out important documents, but sneezing never phases a person, we cover our faces and then go right back to typing. Mix these sneezing germs with the urine on the keys, and who knows what type of poison you have just created for yourself. Then... let's not forget to rush off to that meeting down the hall, shake a few hands of senior management, transferring the poison (and who knows what they have just given to you), then return from your meeting and re-work the same document you were typing out earlier.... making a third melange of the germs on the keyboard... yum yum. By the end of the day, one can only imagine what you are taking home for dinner that evening to share with your family and friends.

Gross.

Apparently some company has come out with a product called Kleen Keys, and supposedly you can wash this keyboard with soap and water which would help eliminate the germs, including the traces of urine... but I can't exactly see my workplace management signing up for 45,000 of these to solve the problem in our Agency.

However, the article does make a good point in that keyboards are common carriers of germs, which lead to flu outbreaks, and other sicknesses that force employees to stay home from work. Perhaps if employers invested in a product such as Kleen Keys, absenteeism would decrease while productivity increases, thus making it worth while to invest in the solution.

I don't know... I have hard time seeing my colleagues and I fighting for the sink in our already dirty kitchen just to scrub down our boards before a big day of work, but ya never know, it could happen.

What I do know is that I will never look at my keyboard in the same way again... and I might as well order myself one of those chairs with the bucket under the seat as apparently going to the bathroom and washing your hands afterwards clearly isn't enough to keep the germs to a minimum.

Gross. Completely and utterly gross.