You are here:   home  Health and Safety  Cleaning for Health

[Overview] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Some Facts About Germs and Disease Germs are most often spread by hands through person-to-person contact. Germs can enter our bodies through the mouth, nose, eyes and breaks in the skin without our even knowing we've been infected. Poor personal hygiene by foodhandlers is the second leading cause of foodborne illness. Americans spend about $5 billion each year on their colds _ about $3 billion on doctors' visits and $2 billion on treatments. An estimated 60 million days of school and 50 million days of work are lost annually because of the common cold. Some 5.5 million visits to doctors' offices each year are due to skin infections. Germs can be transferred from inanimate surfaces to hands and vice-versa. Some germs can live on dry surfaces (such as toys) for several hours and moist surfaces (like bathroom sinks) for up to three days. Salmonella can survive freezing and can survive on dry surfaces for at least 24 hours. The average kitchen dishcloth can contain 4 billion living germs.