Latest news with #microbiologist
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
I'm a microbiologist - this is the common dining mistake people make that's causing crippling illness
A food poisoning expert has warned that buffets are a 'hotspot for illness' because of common hygiene mistakes. Cross contamination and poor temperature control are the leading cause of food related illness during the dining experience, according to the microbiologist. Dr Kimon-Andreas Karatzas, Associate Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Reading said: 'Without proper precautions, [buffets] can also pose serious food safety risks. 'One of the main food safety challenges at buffets is temperature control. Harmful bacteria multiply rapidly in what experts call the "danger zone".' The high risk zone is the temperature range between 8°C and 63°C. If food sits within this range for too long, it becomes an ideal breeding ground for microbes. 'Unfortunately, in busy all-you-can-eat environments, it's common for staff to top up half-empty trays instead of replacing them. 'While this may reduce food waste, it increases the likelihood of contamination, especially during high-traffic service times,' says Dr Karatzas, writing in the Conversation. 'Without strict hygiene protocols in place, even small lapses in temperature control can lead to widespread illness.' The expert highlights that there are three main bacteria to be wary of at buffets. The first is salmonella, which is often found in under-cooked poultry, eggs, and dairy products. He warns that it can cause diarrhoea, fever, and abdominal cramps, and it spreads easily if hot food is not kept at a safe temperature. He also notes that 'e. coli, typically linked to under-cooked beef and raw vegetables, can cause severe gastrointestinal illness and, in some cases, lead to kidney failure.' Finally, a bacteria often found in soft cheeses, pâté, and pre-packed sandwiches — listeria monocytogenes — can be a risk to people with weakened immune systems like pregnant women. 'In many buffet settings, food is left sitting out for extended periods – sometimes in ambient room temperatures, and sometimes without adequate heating or refrigeration equipment. This allows bacteria to flourish,' says Dr Karatzas. The expert also warns that cross contamination is a serious risk at buffets. 'If just one dish becomes contaminated—say, with under-cooked meat juices or bacteria from unwashed hands—they can spread to other foods, affecting many people,' says Dr Karatzas. 'Sneezes over platters and untrained customers handling food directly all increase the risk. Even something as simple as using the same spoon for multiple dishes can be enough to transfer bacteria. 'With many hands touching the same utensils and food being moved or mixed between containers, even a well-run buffet can become a hazard zone as it is difficult to monitor and control that all customers abide to food safety rules.' The expert warns that common cross contamination puts diners with allergies at greater risk. 'Cross-contamination means that allergen-free foods can become unsafe through even minimal contact with allergenic ingredients,' says Dr Karatzas. 'Putting allergic diners at greater risk.' Official statistics show that around 2.4 million people in the UK get food poisoning every year. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) estimates that there are closer to 18 million cases of food poisoning in the UK each year — almost one in four people. Food poisoning is rarely serious and usually gets better within a week. Common symptoms include feeling sick, diarrhoea, tummy pain, a high temperature and feeling generally unwell. To avoid these uncomfortable symptoms the microbiologist recommends that when at a buffet clean utensils should be available for each item, check dishes should be steaming hot or chilled, not lukewarm and diners should wash their hands before serving themselves.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Is your home a health hazard? 15 surprisingly filthy everyday items, from taps to toothbrushes
Most everyday objects are at least a little bit grimy. They rarely, if ever, make contact with soap or disinfectant – unlike your toilet seat, even though that's the one that's often used as a symbol of filth in studies of household cleanliness. Aside from pathogens that can cause disease and illness, 'for the most part, we're dealing with our own bacteria', says Jason Tetro, microbiologist and author of The Germ Code. This usually isn't a problem, especially for youngish healthy people – but, Tetro adds, 'when they accumulate, even if they are your own, it can lead to things like skin irritability, itchy scalp, cavities [in teeth from bacteria-heavy toothbrushes], that type of thing'. Does it matter that your reusable shopping bag might be carrying faecal bugs? Or that your watch strap is teeming with lifeforms? Are the studies – usually small, and sometimes conducted by cleaning-product companies – scaremongering or a grave matter of public health? Germ experts come clean. After going to the loo, or every time your hands are dirty, you touch the tap before washing them. 'If you don't have those [long lever] elbow taps like they have in hospitals, then you're going to be making your taps really gunky, and lead to the potential for cross-contamination,' says Tetro. Clean bathroom and kitchen taps regularly. In the kitchen, if you're washing your hands after handling raw meat, consider turning the tap on before you start. 'I would suggest you just keep a little stream going, and then you don't have to touch the taps until you've washed your hands properly.' Admittedly, this is wasteful, so you could also make sure you disinfect your kitchen taps afterwards. 'I'm surprised new lifeforms don't evolve in kitchen sponges,' says Chuck Gerba, professor of virology at the University of Arizona. They are prime habitats for microbes. 'They are always wet,' says Markus Egert, professor of microbiology at Hochschule Furtwangen University in Germany. 'They have a huge inner surface where a lot of microbes can grow, and you clean a lot of different stuff with them, so the microbes have a lot of nutrients to feed on. And they are rarely cleaned, so that makes them perfect. That's why there are so many microbes in it within a very short time, billions of microbes. The concentration – not the type of microbes – is similar to a human stool sample.' Studies have shown that sponges can contain harmful bacteria such as salmonella or campylobacter, which can cause severe food poisoning. For elderly people or young children, or those with a weakened immune system, this can be especially dangerous. If you do use one, you could clean it in the microwave. Wet it thoroughly, put a bit of washing-up liquid on it and microwave it for one minute, and then let it dry out well. 'This reduces the number of germs very significantly,' says Egert. But this could eventually prove counterproductive. 'The few microbes that survive probably can grow up very fast and so recolonise the sponge. If you do this several times, our hypothesis is that you select for more pathogenic, more resistant microbes than you had before. So you shouldn't do it too often.' Or preferably don't use one at all – most sponges are made of plastic and aren't biodegradable. One of the most neglected items in the kitchen, says Gerba, is the cutting board. 'People just rinse it off,' he says, 'or they'll cut raw meats and then they'll make a salad on it, and you have all those cuts and crevices from cutting that make it difficult to clean. Probably the most important thing is putting it in a dishwasher, or rinsing and scrubbing it.' 'A toothbrush is going to be mainly oral bacteria,' says Tetro. Some studies have shown a toothbrush can be home to 10m bacteria. 'But the microbiome in your mouth will change over time. If you have a lot of sugary, fatty foods, it may help change your microbiome towards bugs that are not so great, and they'll become even more populous, and then you're just spreading them in your mouth.' Give your toothbrush a clean every day. 'Run very hot water over the brush and underneath for five seconds. You should also be changing your toothbrush about once a month.' Watch out for your toothbrush holder, too, where gunk accumulates. 'All the bacteria in the toothbrush end up growing in the bottom,' says Tetro. Tetro is suspicious of anything named 'brush' that is never cleaned. 'With a hairbrush, it's going to be yeast and fungi. After you've washed your hair, using a [dirty] hairbrush may transfer it into your hair.' This could lead to dandruff, or scalp infections. It should be enough to clean your hairbrush once a month, says Tetro. Sometimes dark, always moist, with water left for hours, warming up. Add to that oral bacteria, food particles and (if you're not a regular handwasher) possibly faecal bacteria, and your water bottle becomes a banquet for germs. If you fill your bottle with protein shakes or sugary drinks, it's more like an all-you-can-eat for bacteria. One study found 20% of water bottles tested contained coliform bacteria (of faecal origin). Another study found an average water bottle had 20.8m colony-forming units – more than 40,000 times the number on a toilet seat. 'If you drink water from a swimming pool, you should expect to drink poop – but, if it's your own water bottle, probably not,' says Tetro. It's best to pour away old water, wash the bottle in hot water and washing-up liquid and, at least once a week, give it a good scrub with a (clean!) brush. Don't forget lids, straws and spouts. Your fancy smartwatch is telling you everything you need to know about your resting heart rate and sleep quality, but it is harbouring a dirty secret – it's teeming with germs. A 2023 study found that, while staphylococci were expected (they're naturally found on skin), there were relatively high rates of pseudonomas bacteria (some variants can cause infections in humans) and 60% had enteric bacteria (found in the intestine), including E coli. Rubber and cloth straps were the worst, with gold and silver straps performing well. You handle them multiple times, drop them on the floor, put them in your pocket, share them with other people, and then jam them in your ears – a warm, dark, moist place, home to your usual bacterial flora, and now the venue for a whole host of germs to party to your playlist. One study that swabbed 50 earphones identified fungi and bacteria, including E coli. Again, anything that comes into contact with human skin is expected to be loaded with bacteria, and a study on spectacles found, unsurprisingly, that nose pads and the parts that touched the ears had higher concentrations. While the bacteria detected wouldn't be a concern to healthy people, the study found about 60% of the bacteria could be risky to people with compromised immune systems. It also identified bacteria linked to eye infections. It found alcohol wipes were the best at decreasing bacterial load, but many opticians say they could damage the lenses and advise warm soapy water and a soft cloth. A 2023 food-handling study, following people who were making turkey burgers from raw meat, swabbed utensils and kitchen surfaces afterwards and found spice jars were the most frequently contaminated, with nearly half of the objects affected. Your salt and pepper shakers may also be giving you more than seasoning – a 2010 study by ABC News found shakers in restaurants were the second-dirtiest items on the table (after menus), and in a 2008 University of Virginia study, which tested objects that had been touched by cold sufferers, traces of the virus were found on all the shakers. 'Reusable bags tend to get contaminated with bacteria from raw meat and produce,' says Gerba. 'Putting them in a car trunk is like creating an incubator for the bacteria to grow in most climates.' In one of his studies where reusable grocery bags were collected from shoppers and tested, more than half contained coliform bacteria, which probably came from raw meat and other produce, and E coli was detected in 8% of bags. When the team deliberately contaminated bags with meat juices and stored them in the boot of a car for a couple of hours, the bacteria increased tenfold. 'They should be washed on a regular basis,' says Gerba. He favours cotton bags. A team from the University of Houston tested light switches, among other areas including bathroom sinks and floors, in hotel rooms and found they were significant harbourers of faecal bacteria. In another test, nearly a quarter of light switches were found to be contaminated with the cold virus an hour after someone with snotty fingers had touched them. Your TV remote might be 15 times more disgusting than your toilet seat. A survey for Churchill, the insurance company, found high levels of faecal bacteria on the remotes swabbed. Other surveys have found that between a quarter and third of people never clean their remote, a device that is touched by an average family of four an estimated 21,000 times a year. True, it's not as if you'll come out of the shower dirtier than you went in, but the curtain may be the dirtiest place in the bathroom. To use our trusty toilet-seat comparison tool, one study found shower curtains had 60 times more bacterial life. That was a laughably small study of three curtains, but it's obvious they're a danger zone – people have disgusting shower habits, such as urinating, and bacteria thrive in warm, wet places. So does mould. 'Shower curtains are disgusting,' says Tetro with a laugh. 'This is, again, one of those things where, if it's your shower, your curtain, who cares, right? But a lot of people will share the shower space. As a result, you are going to have a lot more of those human germs.' And not just from people's hands and faces, he points out. 'It's going to be coming from your whole body, which is why we really should be disinfecting those shower curtains every time we disinfect the tub or the shower stall.' You can also run the shower curtain through the washing machine every so often. You should be mindful of how clean any of your cleaning appliances are, from mouldy washing machines to stinky dishwashers. 'You should be careful when you empty the vacuum cleaner,' says Gerba. In samples of household vacuum cleaner contents, 'we found salmonella in about 10% of them. What you do is you pick up the bacteria and all this nice food for them to eat [in dust and debris], so it becomes a cafeteria for bacteria.' With a bagless cleaner, don't shake it into your bin in the kitchen – do it outside if you can).
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Is your home a health hazard? 15 surprisingly filthy everyday items, from taps to toothbrushes
Most everyday objects are at least a little bit grimy. They rarely, if ever, make contact with soap or disinfectant – unlike your toilet seat, even though that's the one that's often used as a symbol of filth in studies of household cleanliness. Aside from pathogens that can cause disease and illness, 'for the most part, we're dealing with our own bacteria', says Jason Tetro, microbiologist and author of The Germ Code. This usually isn't a problem, especially for youngish healthy people – but, Tetro adds, 'when they accumulate, even if they are your own, it can lead to things like skin irritability, itchy scalp, cavities [in teeth from bacteria-heavy toothbrushes], that type of thing'. Does it matter that your reusable shopping bag might be carrying faecal bugs? Or that your watch strap is teeming with lifeforms? Are the studies – usually small, and sometimes conducted by cleaning-product companies – scaremongering or a grave matter of public health? Germ experts come clean. After going to the loo, or every time your hands are dirty, you touch the tap before washing them. 'If you don't have those [long lever] elbow taps like they have in hospitals, then you're going to be making your taps really gunky, and lead to the potential for cross-contamination,' says Tetro. Clean bathroom and kitchen taps regularly. In the kitchen, if you're washing your hands after handling raw meat, consider turning the tap on before you start. 'I would suggest you just keep a little stream going, and then you don't have to touch the taps until you've washed your hands properly.' Admittedly, this is wasteful, so you could also make sure you disinfect your kitchen taps afterwards. 'I'm surprised new lifeforms don't evolve in kitchen sponges,' says Chuck Gerba, professor of virology at the University of Arizona. They are prime habitats for microbes. 'They are always wet,' says Markus Egert, professor of microbiology at Hochschule Furtwangen University in Germany. 'They have a huge inner surface where a lot of microbes can grow, and you clean a lot of different stuff with them, so the microbes have a lot of nutrients to feed on. And they are rarely cleaned, so that makes them perfect. That's why there are so many microbes in it within a very short time, billions of microbes. The concentration – not the type of microbes – is similar to a human stool sample.' Studies have shown that sponges can contain harmful bacteria such as salmonella or campylobacter, which can cause severe food poisoning. For elderly people or young children, or those with a weakened immune system, this can be especially dangerous. If you do use one, you could clean it in the microwave. Wet it thoroughly, put a bit of washing-up liquid on it and microwave it for one minute, and then let it dry out well. 'This reduces the number of germs very significantly,' says Egert. But this could eventually prove counterproductive. 'The few microbes that survive probably can grow up very fast and so recolonise the sponge. If you do this several times, our hypothesis is that you select for more pathogenic, more resistant microbes than you had before. So you shouldn't do it too often.' Or preferably don't use one at all – most sponges are made of plastic and aren't biodegradable. One of the most neglected items in the kitchen, says Gerba, is the cutting board. 'People just rinse it off,' he says, 'or they'll cut raw meats and then they'll make a salad on it, and you have all those cuts and crevices from cutting that make it difficult to clean. Probably the most important thing is putting it in a dishwasher, or rinsing and scrubbing it.' 'A toothbrush is going to be mainly oral bacteria,' says Tetro. Some studies have shown a toothbrush can be home to 10m bacteria. 'But the microbiome in your mouth will change over time. If you have a lot of sugary, fatty foods, it may help change your microbiome towards bugs that are not so great, and they'll become even more populous, and then you're just spreading them in your mouth.' Give your toothbrush a clean every day. 'Run very hot water over the brush and underneath for five seconds. You should also be changing your toothbrush about once a month.' Watch out for your toothbrush holder, too, where gunk accumulates. 'All the bacteria in the toothbrush end up growing in the bottom,' says Tetro. Tetro is suspicious of anything named 'brush' that is never cleaned. 'With a hairbrush, it's going to be yeast and fungi. After you've washed your hair, using a [dirty] hairbrush may transfer it into your hair.' This could lead to dandruff, or scalp infections. It should be enough to clean your hairbrush once a month, says Tetro. Sometimes dark, always moist, with water left for hours, warming up. Add to that oral bacteria, food particles and (if you're not a regular handwasher) possibly faecal bacteria, and your water bottle becomes a banquet for germs. If you fill your bottle with protein shakes or sugary drinks, it's more like an all-you-can-eat for bacteria. One study found 20% of water bottles tested contained coliform bacteria (of faecal origin). Another study found an average water bottle had 20.8m colony-forming units – more than 40,000 times the number on a toilet seat. 'If you drink water from a swimming pool, you should expect to drink poop – but, if it's your own water bottle, probably not,' says Tetro. It's best to pour away old water, wash the bottle in hot water and washing-up liquid and, at least once a week, give it a good scrub with a (clean!) brush. Don't forget lids, straws and spouts. Your fancy smartwatch is telling you everything you need to know about your resting heart rate and sleep quality, but it is harbouring a dirty secret – it's teeming with germs. A 2023 study found that, while staphylococci were expected (they're naturally found on skin), there were relatively high rates of pseudonomas bacteria (some variants can cause infections in humans) and 60% had enteric bacteria (found in the intestine), including E coli. Rubber and cloth straps were the worst, with gold and silver straps performing well. You handle them multiple times, drop them on the floor, put them in your pocket, share them with other people, and then jam them in your ears – a warm, dark, moist place, home to your usual bacterial flora, and now the venue for a whole host of germs to party to your playlist. One study that swabbed 50 earphones identified fungi and bacteria, including E coli. Again, anything that comes into contact with human skin is expected to be loaded with bacteria, and a study on spectacles found, unsurprisingly, that nose pads and the parts that touched the ears had higher concentrations. While the bacteria detected wouldn't be a concern to healthy people, the study found about 60% of the bacteria could be risky to people with compromised immune systems. It also identified bacteria linked to eye infections. It found alcohol wipes were the best at decreasing bacterial load, but many opticians say they could damage the lenses and advise warm soapy water and a soft cloth. A 2023 food-handling study, following people who were making turkey burgers from raw meat, swabbed utensils and kitchen surfaces afterwards and found spice jars were the most frequently contaminated, with nearly half of the objects affected. Your salt and pepper shakers may also be giving you more than seasoning – a 2010 study by ABC News found shakers in restaurants were the second-dirtiest items on the table (after menus), and in a 2008 University of Virginia study, which tested objects that had been touched by cold sufferers, traces of the virus were found on all the shakers. 'Reusable bags tend to get contaminated with bacteria from raw meat and produce,' says Gerba. 'Putting them in a car trunk is like creating an incubator for the bacteria to grow in most climates.' In one of his studies where reusable grocery bags were collected from shoppers and tested, more than half contained coliform bacteria, which probably came from raw meat and other produce, and E coli was detected in 8% of bags. When the team deliberately contaminated bags with meat juices and stored them in the boot of a car for a couple of hours, the bacteria increased tenfold. 'They should be washed on a regular basis,' says Gerba. He favours cotton bags. A team from the University of Houston tested light switches, among other areas including bathroom sinks and floors, in hotel rooms and found they were significant harbourers of faecal bacteria. In another test, nearly a quarter of light switches were found to be contaminated with the cold virus an hour after someone with snotty fingers had touched them. Your TV remote might be 15 times more disgusting than your toilet seat. A survey for Churchill, the insurance company, found high levels of faecal bacteria on the remotes swabbed. Other surveys have found that between a quarter and third of people never clean their remote, a device that is touched by an average family of four an estimated 21,000 times a year. True, it's not as if you'll come out of the shower dirtier than you went in, but the curtain may be the dirtiest place in the bathroom. To use our trusty toilet-seat comparison tool, one study found shower curtains had 60 times more bacterial life. That was a laughably small study of three curtains, but it's obvious they're a danger zone – people have disgusting shower habits, such as urinating, and bacteria thrive in warm, wet places. So does mould. 'Shower curtains are disgusting,' says Tetro with a laugh. 'This is, again, one of those things where, if it's your shower, your curtain, who cares, right? But a lot of people will share the shower space. As a result, you are going to have a lot more of those human germs.' And not just from people's hands and faces, he points out. 'It's going to be coming from your whole body, which is why we really should be disinfecting those shower curtains every time we disinfect the tub or the shower stall.' You can also run the shower curtain through the washing machine every so often. You should be mindful of how clean any of your cleaning appliances are, from mouldy washing machines to stinky dishwashers. 'You should be careful when you empty the vacuum cleaner,' says Gerba. In samples of household vacuum cleaner contents, 'we found salmonella in about 10% of them. What you do is you pick up the bacteria and all this nice food for them to eat [in dust and debris], so it becomes a cafeteria for bacteria.' With a bagless cleaner, don't shake it into your bin in the kitchen – do it outside if you can).
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Here's the nasty reason why you should never trust the plastic hygiene liners on bathing suits
When it comes to swimwear shopping, one of the worst things you can do is try on a suit fully nude. Although bathing suit bottoms usually have a plastic hygiene liner in them — according to a microbiologist, that's the last thing you want near your privates. Nicholas Aicher is a scientist from Chicago. He took it upon himself to swab the plastic seal of two different bathing suit bottoms that hung in a retail store and place them into a petri dish to see what kind of bacteria live on them. 'I thought it would be fun for people to know all the little nastiness that we don't think about every day,' he told What's The Jam. Once home, he transferred the samples to an incubator and let them sit for a bit before revealing some shocking, gross news. The sample from one of the bathing suits had a high amount of Staphylococcus bacteria, which causes staph infections. Common symptoms of staph infections include boils and oozing blisters, and they can turn fatal if the 'bacteria invade deeper into your body, entering your bloodstream, joints, bones, lungs or heart,' according to Mayo Clinic. The results from the other sampled swimsuit were less severe, although it did have 'smaller pin-prick colonies' of the bacteria, according to Jam Press. The moral of the story is to always try on bathing suits with some sort of barrier — whether it be full coverage underwear or tight-fitting pants, like leggings — between your skin and the fabric. And bathing suits are not the only things to be wary of. A TikToker (@onenevertwhoo_one), who only wanted to be referred to by his social media handle, contracted a skin infection most likely due to never washing the clothes he bought from a thrift store, according to Jam Press. He explained in a video — that has since gone viral — that he contracted molluscum contagiosum, a viral skin infection that consists of small, raised, painless bumps on the skin. Apparently the contagious condition that spreads through either skin-to-skin contact or contact with infected objects is harmless and does not require treatment, according to NeedToKnow. Dr. Charles Puza, a board-certified NYC dermatologist, also reiterated in a TikTok video the importance of washing your clothes before putting them on, '…especially if you like fast fashion like Shein and Temu.'
Daily Mail
13-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
You're washing your bedding wrong! Microbiologist reveals how often you should really clean your sheets - and the item you should refresh every three days
With our hectic daily lifestyles, cleaning the bed linen is surely one of the household chores that gets put off the most. And with the mammoth effort involved in putting on a double duvet cover, it's little surprise some of us go for months before getting around to it. But if you rarely change your bedding, you may want to start making it one of your regular jobs, according to a microbiologist. Dr Primrose Freestone, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Leicester, says we should wash our sheets and pillowcases one a week at least. However, for those who sweat heavily, have been ill, or share their bed with pets, the sheets should be washed even more often. Washing linen removes body sweat, oils, microbes, allergens and dead skin cells, which can lead to infections and allergic reactions - not to mention other unsavoury stains. 'While we often focus on how many hours we're getting, the quality of our sleep environment matters too,' said Professor Freestone. 'Regular laundering removes the biological soup of sweat, skin, dust and microbes, which helps to reduce allergic reactions, prevent infections and keep odours at bay.' Each night, we shed thousands of skin cells, excrete oils from our sebaceous glands, and sweat up to half a pint of fluid – even if we've showered just before bed. Skin sweat and oils can support the growth of microorganisms, too small to be seen by the naked eye, Professor Freestone explains in a new piece for The Conversation. Our skin hosts millions of these microbes such as bacteria and fungi, many of which are transferred onto sheets, pillows and duvets as we move during the night. Unfortunately, a gradual build-up of bacteria on your sheets can increase the likelihood of acne, eczema, itching and asthma. Fresh sweat emitted from our skin may be odourless, but bacteria on our skin break it down into smelly byproducts – which is why we get BO. So we should be washing sheets and pillowcases once per week at 140°F/60°C or higher with detergent to kill the bacteria, the academic said. Meanwhile, some fungus species, such as aspergillus fumigatus, have been detected in used bed pillows and can cause serious lung infections, particularly in people with weakened immune systems. Another fungal species called Candida albicans – which can cause oral thrush, urinary tract infections and genital yeast infections – can survive on fabrics for up to a month. What's more, flakes of skin we shed every night become food for dust mites – microscopic, insect-like creatures that thrive in warm, damp bedding and mattresses. The mites themselves aren't dangerous, but their faecal droppings are potent allergens that can aggravate eczema, asthma and allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever. Also, during the day, our hair and bodies collect dust and pollen, which can also transfer to our bedding – triggering allergies and affecting breathing. However, if you sleep with a pet, you should launder your bed sheets and pillowcases even more often – every three to four days, according to the expert. 'Animals introduce extra hair, dander, dirt and sometimes faecal traces into your sheets and blankets, increasing the frequency at which you should be washing them,' she said. According to Professor Freestone, it's not just sheets and pillowcases that should be cleaned more often. Mattresses should be stripped and vacuumed weekly, duvets should be laundered every three to four months, and pillows themselves should be washed and dried every four to six months. Pillows should also be frozen in a suitable freezer for at least eight hours to kill the dust mites lurking inside them. According to research, some Brits go months without washing their bedding, even though freshly-laundered sheets have been linked with a better night's sleep. A 2022 YouGov poll found that just 28 per cent of Brits wash their bed sheets once a week, while 4 per cent wait for two months or more. Potential factors for delaying the job include laziness, lack of time, finding it physically difficult and prioritizing use of the washing machine to clean clothes instead. According to Professor Freestone, regular washing is 'more than just a question of cleanliness' as a good night's sleep is 'essential for normal brain function and overall health'. 'A clean, welcoming bed with crisp sheets, soft pillowcases and fresh blankets not only feels good, it also supports better rest,' she added. 'A hygienic sleep environment is a small but powerful investment in your wellbeing.' Why you should never charge your phone under your pillow during a heatwave Whether it's to send a 'Goodnight' message, play relaxing music, or set an alarm for the morning, many of us like to keep our phones near our bed at night. But while this can be useful, there's one dangerous habit that people should stop immediately, experts say. Apple has issued a warning about charging your iPhone under your pillow, as it can easily overheat and become a potential fire hazard. And it adds to previous concerns that dirt and dust in the charging port of phones can also pose a fire risk. 'Use common sense to avoid situations where your skin is in contact with a device, its power adapter, or a wireless charger when it's operating or connected to a power source for long periods of time,' Apple's website reads. 'For example, don't sleep on a device, power adapter, or wireless charger, or place them under a blanket, pillow, or your body, when it's connected to a power source. 'Keep your iPhone, the power adapter, and any wireless charger in a well-ventilated area when in use or charging.'
