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3-On Your Side: Dirtiest Thing In Your Home

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Did you do any house cleaning this past weekend? Well you may have missed the dirtiest thing in your home and not even realized it. 3-On Your Side's Jim Donovan tells us about a new study that may have you thinking twice about what's clean and what's not.

So do you think that the toilet is the germiest spot in your house? Or maybe it's your computer keyboard? Well to find out, scientists from public health and safety organization, NSF International, swabbed 30 surfaces in 22 homes, that's 660 tests in all. They were checking for germs in the bathroom, the kitchen, and on everyday household objects.

While most people think that their bathrooms are dirtiest. It's actually the kitchen. 32% of all countertops, 45% of sinks, and 77% of sponges tested positive for coliform bacteria, which can cause food poisoning. In fact one dish sponge that was tested had a stomach churning coliform count of 1.8 billion! 180 million times the amount of germs on a new clean sponge. When all was said and done toothbrush holders turned out to be the third germiest spot in all the homes tested, the kitchen sink ranked second but number one was the good old kitchen sponge.

So what can you do to protect yourself? Well instead of using a sponge, use a dishrag that you can throw in the washing machine.

But if you can't part with your sponge, pop it in the microwave for two minutes, and replace it every two weeks.

Watch the video...

Reported by Jim Donovan, CBS 3

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