Fighting the Flu - Seven Tips You Probably Never Thought Of
by
Alicia W
2 Materials
$10
5 Minutes
Easy
It’s flu season as everyone knows and this is one of the worst years for it. The internet and television are filled with suggestions but here are seven tips that you might have overlooked.
1: Take off your shoes when you enter your home, or anyone’s home.
Tests done at the University of Arizona show the bottom of your shoes are dirtier than a public toilet seat. Not only is there bacteria but germs, chemicals, & petroleum by-products.
2: Give everyone in your home their own hand towel in the bathroom & change them daily.
USDA studies showed that hand towels are the most contaminated spot in your bathroom - even worse than the toilet.
3: Speaking of towels, change the towels in your kitchen daily.
As in the bathroom, the towels in your kitchen are the most contaminated spot.
4: Use antibacterial wipes or spray on all hard surfaces
Not only light switches and countertops but faucet handles, refrierator door handles, railings, and microwave oven buttons. Make sure the product you are using says that it “kills bacteria & viruses and that it doesn’t need to be rinsed after application”.
Viruses can live on hard surfaces for 24 hours after being touched.
5: Keep hand sanitizer in your car and apply after every shopping trip.
NBC News did a study on 85 shopping carts in 4 different states and found 72% of them contaminated with coliform bacteria and 50% of the carts contained E. coli.
Forgot hand sanitizer? When you return home, wipe your steering wheel and door handles with an antibacterial wipe.
CBS did a study and found up to 700 potentially dangerous germs per square inch on steering wheels.
6: Someone in your home has a cold or the flu? Change their bed linen every day.
To help prevent recontamination. The same reason hospitals change their linen every day.
7: Someone in your home had a cold or the flu? Replace their toothbrush with a new one.
According to Colgate Professional, germs hide in the toothbrush bristles and lead to reinfection.
Does this mean we should live in a bubble? Of course not but it reminds us to be a little more careful about bringing those germs into our home.
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