You may get sick from germs present in the most unexpected of places.

Germs are everywhere, and 99 percent of them don’t do much harm. However, the rest can lead to illness. And while you may think you’ve got the formula cracked in avoiding germs, you may be surprised that some of the most germ-infested places are those that you consider harmless. You may already avoid obvious offenders (i.e. public toilets), but germs often lurk unnoticed.

Are these culprits making you sick?

1. Cell Phone

This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Cellphones carry up to ten times more bacteria than most toilet seats. You cellphone is often in close proximity to your face, mouth, ears, nose, and hands. Meanwhile, it is placed on a variety of surfaces throughout the day and oftentimes passed to other people to use.

2. Lemon Slice

If you’re a stickler for details, this one’s for you. In a study from the Journal of Environmental Health, it was found that some 70 percent of the lemon wedges placed on restaurant glasses carried disease-causing microbes, including fecal bacteria and E. coli.

3. Dishtowels

Dishtowels are chockfull of bacteria. In one study, approximately 7 percent of kitchen towels were contaminated with MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a staph bacteria that is difficult to treat and can cause life-threatening infections. Dishtowels are also vulnerable to E. coli and other bacteria strains.

4. Refrigerator Seal

Take a look at your refrigerator seal right now and you may not have to read any further to understand why it’s such a hotspot for germs. The refrigerator seal is what lines the door so that it can close fully. In one study, the seal around the fridge in various households around the U.S. tested positive 83 percent of the time for common molds.

5. Soap Dispensers

You may want to consider NOT washing your hands after using a public toilet. Ironic, but advisable. Why, you may ask? Some 25 percent of public restroom soap dispensers are contaminated with fecal bacteria.

6. Vacuum Cleaner

Another ironic place to find bacteria is in the vacuum cleaner. What is meant to clean your home and rid it of dirt and debris may actually be spreading E. coli and fecal matter. A study discovered that 13 percent of all vacuum cleaner brushes are positive for E. coli and 50 percent for fecal bacteria.

7. The Car

The car is paradise for germs. On average there are 10,000 bacteria per four square inches. The number of people coming in and out of the car is surely to blame, but even more incriminating is the ventilation and exposure to sun. Bacteria creep in through the vents and are drawn to the dashboard, where the sun is most likely to hit. Warmth leads to bacteria growth, and the rest is your common cold waiting to happen.

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New research about effective hand washing proves that most of us have been doing it wrong–and it’s costing us millions.

What’s your hand washing technique? Here’s what I do:

1. Crank on the hot water tap
2. Wait a few seconds while it warms up
3. Stick a finger in and realize it’s now too hot
4. Open the cold water tap until it’s warm but not too warm
5. Pump soap into my palms
6. Lather, then rinse, then dry

You were probably doing something similar, and thus taught your kids to do the same. The idea is that the combination of hot water and soap during hand washing kills germs so that we don’t get sick or spread disease to others.

According to Amanda R. Carrico, a research assistant professor at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment in Tennessee, however, it’s just an old wives tale. There’s no scientific proof that hands washed in hot water get any cleaner than those washed in cold water. Meanwhile, our obsession with warm tap water is wasting a ton of energy.

Carrico told National Geographic’s Brian Clark Howard that “after a review of the scientific literature, her team found ‘no evidence that using hot water that a person could stand would have any benefit in killing bacteria.'” What they did find was that the billions of hot water hand washing episodes performed each year are taking a significant toll on the environment (and we’re not just talking about wasted water).

Heating water for hand washing results in 6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually, which, according to Nat Geo, is “roughly equal to the emissions of two coal-fired power plants, or 1,250,000 passenger vehicles, over the course of a year.”

Yikes.

According to the CDC and other health authorities, effective hand washing depends less on the temperature of the water and more on your soaping technique, as well as how long you lather. So in the New Year, I’ll only be reaching for the cold water tap, and training myself to sing through “Happy Birthday” twice before I rinse. Quietly, of course.

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Chemical cleaners remind me of elementary school. Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth alongside Ms. Pac Man, the harsh smell of bleach and whatever that green gravel they sprinkled around could knock this third-grader onto her dungarees. Now it turns out, that cleaner might be responsible for my years as an allergy-ridden teen. And not for the reason you might think, (the smell, the chemicals, and the vomit it inevitably tried to mask…). It’s because a new study out of the University of Michigan shows that some soaps and cleaners are making children more prone to allergies as teenagers.

We’ve already reported on the dangers of antibacterial soap. These can leave a residue on your skin with a few surviving bacteria – which promptly multiply into stronger bacteria that are much harder to kill. But this latest information takes it up a notch. As Metro.com reports, the triclosan found in soaps, toothpaste and other hygiene products can change the immune system in a young person. Allison Aiello is an associate professor and the lead on the study. As she told Metro.com, “It is possible that a person can be too clean for their own good.”

So triclosan is a Very Bad Thing. (Just how bad? Skin Deep links it to cancer, reproductive toxicity, skin irritations and more.) Good old-fashioned soap and water work well, but more and more people are reaching for the heavy-duty antibacterial soaps that could probably take out a zombie plague. But don’t forget, there are many good reasons not to wash daily. So where does this leave us?

For some, it’s thinking that the culture of clean has gone too far. Yes, germs are bad, and you’re never going to find me walking barefoot through a public bathroom or sticking my hand on things well acquainted with other people. But when I find myself fishing out my shirt sleeve to open a door or gazing in awe at a friend who doesn’t, I have to wonder. Have the cartoon germs which scamper smarmily across cleaner commercials gotten into my subconscious? Or am I really just being a good citizen and not spreading germs?

But as more and more evidence shows that extreme vigilance on the germ front can actually harm us, it is hard to know what’s safe and what’s neurotic. I’ve noticed that when I get sick, I can’t trace the cause to touching the wrong door knob or sitting in the wrong restaurant booth. (Though I can trace my last bad cold to a woman who, rounding a corner on the street, sneezed directly on me. Avoid corners during the aforementioned zombie plague.) In the end, it just time some of us relax a little and let the sunshine (and dirt) in.

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Did you know that if you swallow your gum, it will hang out in your stomach forever? Such are the legends of childhood burned in our brain. But what’s truth, what’s myth, and what’s there simply to scare us into good behavior? After all, aren’t all the best nursery rhymes really about avoiding bubonic plague and possibly flesh-craving wolves?

But not all food is so frightening. We decided to debunk some of our strangest myths about food – check out what we found!

Double dipping your food is dangerous.

This is TRUE. Yes, many of us all familiar with George Constanza and his double-dipped chip. (And if you are not, click here immediately.) But will the double-dipped chip really make you sick? Yes, it turns out that it could. Experts say that double dipping a chip can transfer about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the dip. So if you at a party, that means 50 to 100 bacteria can travel from one mouth to another, courtesy of the dip. And sure, we like our friends. But do we really like them that much?

If you drop food on the ground, you have five seconds before it is contaminated.

And yet, this is FALSE. First of all, nasty bacteria such as Salmonella (which causes food poisoning) can live on surfaces for over four weeks. If you drop a piece of bologna on tile, 99 percent of the bacteria will practically instantly adhere to the cold cut. If you drop it on wood, around 68 percent of the bacteria moves onto the sandwich meat. If it is on a carpet, .5 percent of bacteria makes bologna its new home. And it all happens instantly. Still want to eat it?

Fresh fruits and veggies are more nutritious than frozen ones.

This is FALSE, and score for the refrigerator set. (Like the jet set, but cooler.) Some of this has to do with fruits and veggies high carbon footprint. Fruit and veggies are at their best nutritional levels right after they are picked from the vine. So the farther they have to travel to your mouth, the more time they have to degrade. When you properly freeze something, you are essentially halting its degradation. But look for clumping in your frozen bag of goodies – if there’s clumping, it is likely the food thawed on travel.

Eating at night makes you gain weight.

This is FALSE and is really a matter of word play. And yes, before Oprah and her minions set upon me; allow me to introduce the science behind it. The time of day of consumption does not reflect on how much weight you will gain. The reason you gain weight is because you consume more calories than you burn. If you have consumed less calories during the day and have a larger meal at night, you’re not going to gain weight. Does that mean you should pig out right before bed time? Heck no, because if you want to maintain your weight, you should always budget your calories .

You can cure a hangover with food.

This is FALSE but man, I wish this were true. Now that I am older and learned, I drink less. (More emphasis on the older and less on the learned, but still.) But “back in the day” (I’m also holding an ear horn to my head right now) I used to party like it was 1999 for about eight years running. So I became well acquainted with epically-bad hangovers.

And I swore that slices of plain, whole wheat bread were the key to lessening my barf-marathon. But in actuality, they weren’t. You have a hangover because you drank too much and are dehydrated. (So, yes, drink a lot of water. But you’ll still going to feel terrible until the excessive alcohol is out of your system.) You’ve also over-taxed your liver, which is less able to supply glucose to all the needed parts and causing all these yucky feelings. The only true cure to a hangover is not to drink so much alcohol in the first place.

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America has declared war, and it’s not against high-waisted jeans. (Though on that subject, consider me General Patton.) Germs are the new enemy and we’re engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them. Recall the sight of Britney Spears traipsing across gas station bathrooms barefoot, which horrified people more than her shaved head or marriage to K-Fed. Americans hate germs, and anti-bacterial gels, sprays, soaps and wipes are the new norm for most handbags.

And I’m not saying people are wrong. If we’re going to go full neurotic pancakes – I have a reoccurring nightmare where I am in a toilet stall too small and fall onto the uncovered toilet, which looks clean enough. I don’t like the germs either and was as pleased as anyone when anti-bacterial products appeared on the market a few years ago.

But are anti-bacterial products really the best thing for America since the “pie versus cupcake” wars? I don’t think there’s a doctor out there that will tell you to forgo washing your hands, especially in times of serious health crisis. Hand washing is the first line of defense in staying healthy and keeping others the same. So yes, wash your hands and enjoy doing so. But if you are using anti-bacterial soaps, there are a couple points to consider.

First point – bacteria evolves. Experts point out that the over-consumption of anti-bacterial products is leading to strains of resistant bacteria. As Discovery Health reports, “by using more antibacterial products, people may encourage bacteria to evolve and become more virulent than they were before. Overusing antibacterial products is now a major point of study within the field of pharmacoepidemiology – the study of how people use medicines.”

Further, when you use anti-bacterial soaps or gels, a few bacteria may survive the first application. And then what happens is basically War of the Worlds meets your skin. Microbiologists report that this leaves a residual “soup” on your skin where only the strongest survive – and promptly mutate into resistant bacteria. Yes, it’s H.G. Wells’ classical tale but without Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. And also? It’s taking place in your pores.

Nonetheless, some of you may decide to keep using anti-bacterial soaps and gels. Hey, we don’t judge. But allow us to present our second point – there’s a lot of bad stuff in the traditional products. The old-standby, Purell, gets a moderate hazard rating from Skin Deep. It contains ingredients linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity and more. Many anti-bacterial products contain triclosan, which does most of the germ-slaying. Skin Deep rates this a high hazard due to various dangers. And the National Resources Defense Council recently filed a lawsuit against the FDA over triclosan and triclocarbon.

So if you’re going to buy anti-bacterial products, make sure they are free of triclosan – and while you’re reading labels, feel free to kick out toxic fragrances, alcohol, and parabens as well.

So what to buy? Luckily, there is a safer solution on the market. CleanWell’s All-Natural Antibacterial Foaming Handsoap gets a very low hazard rating from Skin Deep. The product has a nice, light texture and a really pleasant natural scent. CleanWell offers the only all-natural antimicrobial on the market that is proven to kill 99.9 percent of all germs. (Apparently, it’s all in the thyme.) And they are sans tricoslan and other nefarious ingredients like benzalkonium chloride (linked to asthma among others,) alcohol, bleach and ammonia. It is also biodegradable and paraben free.

And the best bet? Considering just sticking to plain natural soap and water. It’s worked for centuries and who knows – it might even throw those mutant one percent bacteria off the chase.

FTC Compliant

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Getting Purelled is the growing phenomenon of sanitizing one’s germ-infested mitts with the alcohol-based, Johnson & Johnson product known as Purell.

What’s in the name, William Safire students might ask?

Pure, I imagine, denotes the opposite of tainted, which in flu terms translates into ralphing, the runs and the unpleasant sensation of having been poisoned by Satan. Elle is French for she, as in, she is cruel that H1N1 Virus, widespread in 47 states now. Elle also is a swank Fifties ad-on, like ette for dinette. It sounds real classy.

I first heard the term the other day after ordering my teenage daughter to wash her hands after school. She’s a nail biter, more susceptible than most.

“I just got purelled,” she explained, exhibiting a jellyfish-like, residue bubble in her palm, which she kept afloat because she was undoubtedly fascinated by its staying power.  She has been studying chemistry in school. And I believe pathogen is one of her SAT terms.

Sydney and her peers happily take advantage of the economy, vat-sized, plastic dispensers of the waterless germ fighter stationed in every nook and cranny of her school, from the bathrooms to the cafeteria, library and gym.

At the campus’s recent Grandparents Day buffet breakfast, I watched an elderly dude mistake the jug O’Purell for carbonated water, carelessly pumping a shot into his cup with a puzzled visage. I gently intervened to set him straight. “You don’t want to drink that, Mister.”

The sanitizer, albeit refreshing upon contact with the skin, is not desirable as a beverage, no matter how much the Dunder Mifflinaholic, Meredith Baxter, of The Office fame ingests it for its alcohol content.

Getting purelled sounds ironically similar to getting paroled. In fact, a link exists when you consider hand purifying might prevent weeks off from school, a form of prison for parents who can’t do squat during the duration of the relatively mild but ubiquitously feared illness. I know as a mom who recently emerged from the trenches with her Swine Flu-infected youngest.

“Mommy, I’m bored! Mommy, stop working, I’m bored! ” I call it Purell hell.

In an aggressive no-tolerance approach, our school armed itself with endless stockpiles of the weapon at the beginning of the year hoping it might slow what it cannot prevent. While the CDC says there are  plenty of the H1N1 vaccines to go around, many parents apparently prefer that surefire killer, Purell.

“I definitely think it has slowed down the spread since contact between these kids is so constant, maybe each child is contacting 20 others throughout the day,”  says Dr. David Abusch-Magder, the head of middle school at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco.

At least the school, which has an impressive recycling and composting program, is using refillable containers. If you must invest is this much plastic, you might as well maximize its shelf life.

In addition to schools,  I’ve spotted the dispensers just about everywhere these days, from Trader Joe’s checkout counters to business offices, exercise studios and even in the cup holder of my own car.  The truth is there is no place to avoid the risk of contamination. Many organisms continue to thrive in my car despite the Purell.

Another truth is that we are creating a population of Purelled humans immune to the small percentage of bacteria resistant to the liquid. Bacteria that don’t die simply reproduce.

Let’s just hope we can conceive of  a way to upcycle all of those plastic dispensers once we are restored.

This is the latest installment in Luanne’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Top image: The Local

Image One:Upyernoz

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The flu is already spreading like a Malibu wildfire in my Bay Area community with dozens of kids out the first few weeks of school and contaminated parents unable to play nurse.

It’s going to happen, no way of avoiding it all together, but there are some simple steps to build immunity and combat the spreading of germs at home.

Some people opt for the influenza vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says protects against the three main flu strains causing the most illness during the season. This year’s vaccine contains three new virus strains: A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like virus, A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus and B/Brisbane 60/2008-like antigens.

The government says it is believed the 2009-10 influenza vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses, or it can make your illness milder if you get a related but different influenza virus strain.

For those choosing not to get the shot, most methods of fighting and containing the enemy involve keeping your hands and surroundings clean and lying low when you know you’re not well and can infect others. The good news for the planet is that none of the hygiene practices require harmful chemicals to kill the enemy.

1. Hand Washing

Discovered only 150 years ago, frequent hand washing is the most effective way to keep germs from making you sick and spreading to your pals. According to Every Day Health, it doesn’t matter what kind of soap is used as long as the water is warm and the soap lathers and spreads over the hands sufficiently to trap the germs. Soap and water works best (meaning you don’t have to use a chemical-doused sanitizer that can actually lead to worse viruses). Here are the steps recommended by the CDC:

– Wet your hands with clean water – warm, if available – and apply soap.
– Lather by rubbing hands together; be sure to cover all surfaces.
– Continue rubbing hands together for 15 to 20 seconds – sing “Happy Birthday” twice in your head.
– Thoroughly rinse hands under running water to ensure removal of residual germs.
– Use paper towels or an air dryer to dry hands and then, if possible, use a paper towel to turn off the faucet.

2. Sponge Duty

Sponges used to wash dishes and wipe down counters harbor massive amounts of bacteria, at times even salmonella.  While we are urged to replace them often to keep our kitchens clean, many sponges are made from plastics which means even more petroleum waste in our environment.

According to Living Green, the added environmental danger with many synthetic sponges is that they often contain Triclosan, an antibacterial and antifungal agent banned by Canada in household products this past August. Even though it’s registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as being a pesticide, it is frequently used in many antibacterial soaps, deodorants, toothpastes and cosmetics. The chemical is linked to health problems and harms fragile aquatic ecosystems and waterways.

While replacing sponges regularly is a good hygienic practice, stick to buying ones made from cellulose fiber (cellulose is sourced from plantation forests or recycled). Read the label carefully as some cellulose sponges are impregnated with polyester, a form of plastic. Keep your green cellulose sponge as dry as possible between uses, to avoid bacteria.  Sterilize them by soaking for a few minutes in boiled water, or try a dilute bleach/hydrogen peroxide solution.

The U.S. Dept of Agriculture also recommends killing bacteria and mold by microwaving a damp sponge or dishwashing a sponge with a drying cycle (the method my family uses).

3. Stay Home When you are Sick

Take cover when you are sick (just like covering your cough) by keeping away from other students, workers and friends. State health departments urge employees to stay home when they are infected for good reason. It’s the right thing to do for you and your community. Ask a friend or a loved one to make a nice pot of organic chicken soup, crank up the vitamins and heal thyself. Work can added undue stress that undermines a quick recovery. Work can wait.

4. Resist Sharing Personal Items

You don’t share brushes to avoid lice. And you don’t share eating utensils, drinking glasses, towels or other personal items if you want to avoid flu and colds. While sharing is a good gesture, there is a big exception when it comes to hygiene.

5. Love Yourself More

An excellent reference guide by Our Home Remedies follows the non-nonsense Farmer’s Almanac approach of boosting your immune system with rest, healthy foods like fresh leafy veggies and organic fruit, Vitamin C, garlic and thyme, and beneficial teas. We know when we are not loving ourselves because we don’t sleep and become run down, dehydrated and tend to reach for high sugar foods to revive us, rather than what we really need.

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