Computer Cleans

You can catch a cold, flu, asthma, hay fever, abscesses and countless other serious infections from your home or work PC. Bugs clog up keyboards and the computer's processing unit because users sneeze and cough over them, tip food in as they eat while they work and shed dead skin.

That makes PCs a great place for bugs to live because there is a ready supply of food. Public health specialist Dr Charles Gerba warned of the dangers lurking in PCs after examining hundreds of machines from homes and work stations.

He found computers shared by more than one person suffered the worst contamination.

	Coughs - Dr Gerba of Arizona State University said:
	"The computer keyboard is a favourite place for them, underneath the keys"
	"The bugs - real bugs, not computer bugs - prefer to live where there's a nice food supply"
	"But we also found them inside the PCs as well. Dust and contamination gets sucked in by the computer's cooling fans"
	"Dust mites live off these skin particles and they like living under computer keys and inside computers where dust collects"
	"Mites cause allergies like asthma and hay fever symptoms"
	"Bacteria live off food particles like biscuits and breadcrumbs"
	"The viruses get carried onto the computer spread by sneezes and coughs and can spread to humans if touched"

Dr Gerba recommends professional cleaning tools for keyboards which, he says, works well.