London - While I’ve never claimed to be a Domestic Goddess, I never thought my household management skills were on a par with the poisoner Dr Crippen. But I have in my hand a set of laboratory tests and it makes very scary reading.
According to this document, I’ve got E.coli in the dishwasher, toxic fungus on the bath mat and goodness knows what festering in the toy box. As for the baby’s car seat, you don’t even want to go there...
Three weeks ago, I arranged for a scientist to take swabs from ten sites around my home to find out where potentially harmful bacteria and parasites might be lurking.
I included obvious culprits such as the kitchen cloth (a known breeding ground for bacteria). But in the wake of recent reports pointing to the potential dangers in less obvious places, such as the dishwasher, samples were also collected from other seemingly innocuous places, including the piano keyboard and the children’s favourite wooden toys.
These swabs were then sent away to an independent lab to be analysed for a range of bugs and nasties.
Until now, I’ve always had a pretty healthy attitude towards dirt and grime. I thoroughly clean all the obvious places such as the loos, kitchen work surfaces and baby’s highchair, but with three young children and an energetic dog running amok, I struggle to keep every inch of the house pristine.
Perhaps I should be more neurotic, but I’ve always subscribed to that old adage (as did my own mother) that a little bit of dirt does you good. It builds up immunity and makes a child more robust. And apart from the occasional cold or tummy bug, my children are very rarely ill.
But as I showed scientist Dr Anton de Paiva round my home, I wondered if there is a darker side to my style of shabby chic.
Dr De Paiva is bio-risk manager and deputy safety director at Imperial College London, and he looked horrified when I admitted I had never cleaned the dishwasher. (Er, I thought that was the point. Surely it cleans itself?)
“If you look behind the seals, you will find mould and other nasties lurking which will be resistant to the high temperatures,’ he said. ‘You need to wipe round the seals once a month or so with a product like Viakal to remove mould and limescale.”
After reminding me that a dishcloth which is used to wipe up meat juices or food will multiply into a cocktail of microbes after just six hours and should be soaked regularly in diluted bleach, he then moved on to the sitting room.
He homed in on the toybox - specifically, a wooden bus we’ve had for years and a Playmobil garage we bought on eBay.
“These could be responsible for regularly spreading germs from one child to another,’ he said. ‘Toys are a fomite - meaning an inanimate object which is capable of carrying infectious organisms. In paediatric units, toys are responsible for the biggest transfer of germs, so hospitals have to have a stringent cleaning and disposal policy.”
Although I do wash the soft toys every now and again, I have to admit the bus, the garage and the wooden train set are not part of a regular cleaning programme. Dr De Paiva recommends they’re cleaned every month using a bowl of soapy water, then dried thoroughly. If a child spills food or drink on them, they should be wiped straight away.
Door handles, apparently, are also fomites and should be regularly wiped, especially those in the bathroom. Talking of which, Dr De Paiva found black mould on the underside of my rubber bath mat, which he identified as a type of fungi that can cause skin rashes and fungal infections.
“You can’t stop this from growing, but you can prevent it by turning the mat after use to dry it out,’ he told me. ‘If you see any signs of mould on your mat or bath toys, dispose of them immediately, carrying them through the house in a black sack to prevent the mould releasing spores.”
The next breeding ground for germs: the baby’s car seat. These can become warm and sweaty on long journeys, and harmful bacteria, from a leaked nappy, for example, will multiply. He advises washing the seat cover once a month, and cleaning hard surfaces with disinfectant.
By the end of the tour, I was thoroughly depressed, despite Dr De Paiva’s attempts to reassure me. “We would get a far worse result by taking a swab from inside your nose,” he said. “We are designed to survive this stuff.”
Still, the lab report made grim reading and I was convinced I needed to call in a team of industrial cleaners.
Thankfully, Dr De Paiva didn’t think so. Instead, he suggested a few simple steps I could take to minimise any potential dangers, such as cleaning more regularly, more immediately, and in more unlikely places.
Interestingly, though, he is dismissive of products that make grand claims about killing bacteria. “I believe chemical sprays are not the answer. The key is good hygiene, not dousing everything in chemicals.
“When you are cooking, you will kill off any potentially harmful bacteria if you wash your hands thoroughly and cook food properly. Widen your cleaning routine to include toys that are used regularly, and other fomites such as door handles. Above all, be led by your nose. If something smells bad, it usually is.”
Hygiene expert Dr Roland Cocker agrees: “People rely on chemicals to kill bacteria, but the best way to clean a surface is with ordinary detergent and water.
“First, clean off any food or soil with a dry cloth. It’s very important to remove the biological material first. Then wash it with soap and water, and dry thoroughly. The danger of these so-called magical chemical sprays is that people tend to layer the chemicals on top of the mess.” - Daily Mail