Have you thought about the cleanliness of objects that you and the people around you touch all the time? Here’s what you need to know about cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched items as part of your efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Germs are a part of everyday life. Some of them are helpful, but others are harmful and cause disease. They can be found everywhere - in our air, soil, and water. They are on our skin and in our bodies. Germs are also on the surfaces and objects that we touch.

Sometimes those germs can spread to you and make you sick. For example, there could be germs on a TV remote or your mobile phone; you could get infected with the germs if you touch the remote and then rub your eyes or nose or eat with your hands.

To avoid becoming infected by germs from objects, it is important to wash your hands often. But you can't wash your hands every time you touch something; so, it's also important to regularly disinfect the objects around you.

To prevent the spread of infection, you should regularly disinfect objects that are touched often. For example, in your house, this would include countertops, doorknobs, faucet and toilet handles, light switches, remotes, toys, computer keyboard & mouse, your cellphone, knives and forks, elevator buttons, toilet flushing mechanisms, stair railings, keys, card machines, access disks, door handles, taps – the list goes on and on. Each of us touches these and many other things every day. No matter your context, you will handle some items often in your day.

You may wonder, how might cellphones contribute to the spread of the infectious diseases?

We know that the main way the virus is spread is through contact – through our hands. And people are inseparable from their phones, our hands are constantly touching our phones and then coming up to our faces. So, we do need to think of our phones as any other potential vector of the spread of germs, bacteria and virus.

Are your hands as clean as you think they are?

The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has suddenly alerted us to the dangers of handling many items. Everyone is now cautious of frequently touched surfaces in public places, such as stair railings and door handles, lift buttons, escalator handrails, supermarket trolley handles and all communal surfaces in the workplace (if you are not working from home).

Worldwide there is an effort to clean all of these more often. People seem to be aware of the importance of washing their hands immediately after they have touched any of these surfaces. Yet, even in the case of objects that only you have touched, there is still a danger that they carry pathogens.

Your hands might not be as clean as you think or you may have touched a contaminated surface without even realizing it.

An Australian study found that medical students touched their faces in average of 23 times in an hour. You probably do the same.

So how real is the danger of the COVID-19 virus being transmitted by contaminated objects?

It's very real, because the virus is stable for several hours to days on surfaces and liquid droplets in the air, according to a study published by the National Institutes of Health on March 17 2020. The study found that the virus could be detected in droplets in the air after three hours and could survive for four hours on copper, 24 hours on cardboard and up to two or three days on plastic and stainless steel. The illness is thought mainly to spread from person to person when someone coughs or sneezes and the droplets land on someone else's mouth or nose. But frequently touched surfaces hold a danger too. If you touch a contaminated surface or object, and touch your nose, eyes or mouth with unwashed hands, you could transmit the virus.

Few items you touch all the time

Cellphones are central to our lives – especially now that we are practicing social distancing. We touch our phones all the time – there's a reason it is called a ‘touch screen’. A 2012 study from the University of Arizona found that cellphones had ten times as many germs on them as most toilet seats. People clean toilets, but they don't think of cleaning their cellphone. Until now.

So how do you clean a cellphone without damaging it?

We advise that you follow the instruction given in our user’s guide by using our fogger (P-H2O Fogger) to apply the mist version of our solution in the finest particles on your phone and wipe with the provided antifog cloth that comes along with our device. Certainly, you shouldn't submerge your phone in our solution. Any chemical based disinfectant might make your phone's display less clear for a while, and continuous use of the same might end up damaging the screen's coating, so be careful. Mist your phone with P-H2O and wipe it down. Make sure you don't get any moisture in the openings, such as the charging port by concentrating more on those openings. The mist version of our solution comes with a technology that will let our solution land on your phone without wetting it. Clean it immediately if given to other people to use

Computer keyboards. You're possibly sitting in front of one right now. You can disinfect keyboards using P-H2O, applicable by our mist technology. Be careful not to spray chemical-based disinfectant onto keyboards or to get the keyboard wet because you could damage it permanently.

Desktop. Remove any objects from your desk and apply P-H2O to disinfect the whole surface properly as instructed in our user’s guide. Do this even more regularly if more than one person uses the desk.

Keys. According to researches, keys can harbor the COVID-19 virus for up to 48 hours. Unquestionably, keys that more than one person use, such as bathroom keys in public places or door keys in a household, regular disinfecting.

Money is difficult to avoid handling. The COVID-19 virus can survive for up to five days on metal and 24 hours on paper. It is recommended that you wash your hands after handling cash or using an ATM – more now than ever. Also do so after using a supermarket card machine. Right now, it is better to use cards or do online transactions – any type of contactless payment. Remember to use P-H2O sanitizer on your hand every time you exchange money.

Door handles – even the ones in your own home – can harbor the COVID-19 virus for up to 72 hours. All hard surfaces can, but this is one surface everyone touches.

So, in summary, take stock of the items you often touch, then use P-H2O disinfectant on them as prescribed in out user’s guide, and never forget to sanitize your hands often with P-H2O organic sanitizer. Practice routine cleaning and disinfection of frequently touched surfaces. More frequent cleaning and disinfection may be required based on level of use. Surfaces and objects in public places, such as shopping carts, point of sale keypads, pens, counters, vending machines, and ATMs are supposed to be disinfect before each use, but this may not be possible in many places. This is the reason for frequent sanitizing of our hands as much as possible. And P-H2O will be best in addressing this, too cheap and won’t restrict frequent usage. Every time you leave your house, disinfect all of the objects you take and bring back with you. This includes your keys and wallet. Always make the assumption that whatever you touch, or whatever you bring into the house, is contaminated.

In this way, protect yourself, your family and all the people around you.