Workplace Safety: The Hazards of Your Filthy Desk

Oct 9th, 2012 | By | Category: Health and Safety

The Hazards of Your Filthy Desk is a great information graphic from LearnStuff.com that describes the health hazards associated with offices. The graphic includes a couple dozen high-impact images and informative text (excerpt below). It would make a good poster or safety meeting handout.

Is your throat sore? Is your nose running? Do you have a fever? If you have any of these symptoms, chances are that you got them by sitting at your desk. Although it might look sterile, in fact, your desk harbors more germs and bacteria on it than a kitchen table or even a toilet. That shouldn’t be surprising when you think that at least 50% of Americans eat lunch and snack at their desks and one-third of workers go to work when they’re sick. When combined with the fact that we touch our faces 16 times every hour, it might be a miracle that we aren’t sick all of the time.

The remedies to the spread of illness in the workplace are simple enough

  • wash your hands and your space
  • unchain yourself from your desk for lunch
  • take a day off when you’re not feeling well

— The Hazards of Your Filthy Desk

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