Question

Think about day to day activities. Now think about activities with the possibility of microbial contamination. Give examples of how you might come in contact with microbes in a 24 hour time period.

Answer 1

Microbes are found everywhere, except in clean rooms and extreme environments. In our day to day activities we encounter with microbes almost constantly. All microbes are not harmful and many a times enough microbes do not cross the barriers of the immune system to cause a disease. In a 24 hour period, we may come in contact with microbes when coming in contact or using the following:

• Dust and generally in air
• Our own body consists the normal flora
• Mattresses
• House slippers
• Door handles and knobs
• Taps and flushes
• keyboards, mouses, phones and electronics
• Desks, couches and chairs
• Food (mostly beneficial microbes, but sometimes harmful microbes are present when contaminated with foreign bodies) and tap drinking water
• Steering wheels and door handles of cars or bikes
• Cleaning cloth
• Clothing, shoes and socks
• Equipments at gyms, balls and bats of a sport and swimming pools.
• Pets etc.