Study: Women's desks have more germs

Women may have better accessorized office desks than men, but more germs are lurking around their computers, according to a recent study.

While the level of germs on office desktops and telephones came in gender neutral, women had three to four times more germs on their keyboards and computer mice than their male counterparts.

Desk drawers at women's desks contained seven times more germs than men's.

"What we found is that women seemed to have more stuff in their offices, from makeup bags to pictures of family and purses on their desks," said Dr. Charles Gerba, who led the research at the University of Arizona. "It added up to big numbers for women, even though their offices typically looked cleaner."

However, men didn't make a totally clean getaway. They possessed the germiest item in the office: their wallets.

"The wallet is right next to the rear end, which is the greatest incubator of germs," Dr. Gerba said.

The study also found that lawyers' offices were the cleanest, germ-wise, while the desks of schoolteachers, accountants and bankers collected the most germs.