You’re probably convinced your kitchen sponge is the biological hazard of your home. You’re wrong.
A 2017 WebMD list ranking germy surfaces included smartphones, keyboards, dog toys, shopping carts, and office coffee makers. The sponge landed at number four.
But the list missed the biggest offender. The steering wheel.
American drivers spend 17,600 minutes a year behind the wheel. That’s nearly 300 hours of contact. Yet we ignore the interior. We wash the outside after a muddy storm or winter salt buildup. It looks good. It doesn’t help your health.
CarRentals.com found 32 percent of owners clean the inside once a year. Twelve percent never do.
Twenty percent eat and drink while driving.
Spilled coffee and food crumbs create a dark, confined space with temperature swings. It is a bacterial incubator. One study identified 700 strains of bacteria in the cabin. Touching sticky surfaces transfers them everywhere.
The steering wheel is six times dirtier than your smartphone. Your smartphone topped WebMD’s gross list.
The wheel is four times nastier than a public toilet seat. It is twice as filthy as elevator buttons.
Gas pumps are worse. The handle is 11,835 times dirtier than a toilet seat. You touch it. You touch your door handle. You touch the gearshift. You touch the wheel.
Clean it.
Use sanitizer wipes on high-touch surfaces. Door handles. Audio controls. Keys. Gearshift.
Spray disinfectant into the air filter vent when you change it. This stops germs from cycling through the heat or A/C.
Vacuum carpets. Shampoo seats professionally a few times a year. Replace beat-up floor mats.
Consumer Reports covered this in 2011. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London did the heavy lifting. They found most bacteria on steering wheels aren’t lethal. But some cause food poisoning and other ailments.
The data is clear.
The bacterial breakdown
The 2011 study measured bacteria per 10 square centimeters.
The steering wheel had an average of 700 bacteria.
The driver’s floor, rear seats, and gear shift shared that same average.
The trunk was the worst area. It held 1,000 bacteria per 10 square centimeters.
Your car is a germ factory. Stop treating it like a vault. Wipe it down.
