keyboards as filthy as a loo seat?

There' an article in today's guardian about how someone has found that keyboards are as filthy, if not filthier, than a toilet seat.

No surprises there. To prove it to yourself pick up your keyboard, put a bit of clean A4 on your desk and then turn your keyboard upside dow and shake. If, like me, you habitually eat lunch at your desk, you'll produce a nice load of gunk - see my previous post on the subject.

The interesting thing is that no where in the article actually says how filthy a loo seat is compared with toilet door handles, ordinary door handles and the rest.

Except where precision impaired males are concerned, loo seats probably aren't that dirty compared to door handles - basically because one's bum does not come in contact with dirty things like $10 notes and the like. And as toilet paper forms some sort of barrier to transmission of bacteria - we don't normally come in that close contact with our poo and wee, so I don't see there being that much extra contamination out there. There will be some, and basic personal cleanliness is important, but really I don't see it as that much of an issue.

Yes if there were contaminants in an area anyway, as in a hospital I could see a case for a shared computer keyboard being a risk. But most keyboards are personal and most people are reasonably clean. It's fear, uncertainty and doubt territory.

Abd while I know of one incident where a student urinated on a laser printer that failed to print a term assignment, I havn't yet come across anyone shoving a keyboard up their bum...