office clean food eating etc

[kopend]

are you more at risk from a dirty office desk than say a toilet seat??

and if you live in an ultra clean envoirenment are you more at risk than say someone who is

subject to living in maybe not the cleanest of envoirenments???

[Pigletion]

Depends which one you're eating your food from! As people assume a toilet seat is dirty, it is cleaned accordingly and (most) people wash their hands afterwards, so it'll be relatively clean (you're not going to catch anything from it, though wouldn't suggest it as an ideal place to eat lunch!). However, your desk is touched many times a day, possibl by multiple people and probably not cleaned thoroughly (as most aren't) and is therefore probably quite dirty. The grease from people's hands will stsy on the desk and then attract dirt along with any germs from all the people touching it. Assuming your food is on a plate though, you'll be fine.

If you have always lived in an ultra-clean environment, your immune system won't be fully developed as you will not have been exposed to any antigens to develop the required antibodies against them. Therefore people who have been exposed to minor quantities of these antigens will have developed antibodies against them and their bodies can deal with them. Obviously some places should be very clean, food preparation areas etc.

[woofgang]

even ultra clean "normal environments aren't actually all that clean. If you have been raised or spent long time in a really ultra clean environment such as is used for children with impaired immune systems sometimes then yes, you are more likely to catch stuff when out of it, but for normal folk living normal lives, the immune system gets enough challenges.
Having said that, the kicker comes when you go among strangers. All of us live in happy parnership with all manner of bugs both on the skin and within. We share these with the people we live closely with, all develop a tolerance of their little ways and by and large are not damaged by them. If we then mix with strangers eg go to school, college, take on a new job in a busy enclosed environment, we meet and share new bugs and have to go through the process again. This often means having a spate of mild colds, tummy bugs etc until the new tolerance is developed. AND of course while we are doing this we are generously sharing those new bugs with our family members too.
Eating is one way to intake bugs but its not the only way. inhale over a flushing toilet that has the lid up!!, share stuff like biros and scratch your nose or lips and that old favourite, failing to catch a cough or sneeze.
Sorry if TMI but you did ask!!