Home Sweet Home

Is home sweet home really so sweet? When you lock the door at night, do you think you and your family are really alone? If you do, then think again. You share your home with billions of guests: the microbes. But don't worry! Studies have shown that people who live with microbes gain immunity to microbes that might hurt them outside the home.

Microbes in your kitchen! Well maybe not so many if you use a wooden cutting board instead of a plastic cutting board. A recent study has found that wooden cutting boards harbor far fewer bacteria than do other types of cutting boards.

What creatures lurk in your couch?

Mites
Microscopic animals live in couches and on beds, feeding off of flakes of dead skin cells.

Bacteria called thermophiles can live in your hot water heater.

Sick Building Syndrome, SBS, is a recently recognized disorder in which fumes from materials in buildings give people headaches. Microbes growing in the potting soil of plants have been found that degrade some of these fumes, and in the process eliminate sick building syndrome.

Is that dirt that has rinsed off your body on your shower curtain? Or is it microbes that are growing there?