Gross Things Most People Do Without Realizing It

This article ran in Yahoo and I thought it was worth passing on. Some of the things in this list are unavoidable, while others are not. The thing to remember is anything you intend to put in your mouth will (in one form or another) be touched with your hands. Remember this. Using a hand sanitizer can help alleviate some of these issues. Wash your hands often. Do the things that will keep your immunity high. Be thoughtful with the way you handle items. These will minimize your risks, which is actually the most you can hope  to do.

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Gross Things Most People Do Without Realizing It

Use Dirty Makeup Brushes

Makeup brushes are incredibly dirty with bacteria from your skin, old makeup and bacteria from the environment, such as fecal matter. Dirty makeup brushes have the ability to cause pink eye, skin irritation and acne. If you share makeup, beware that makeup brushes have the ability to spread diseases like herpes.

Let Dogs Lick Their Faces

You probably heard that a dog's mouth is cleaner than the mouth of a human, so you welcomed the sloppy kisses your dog gave you. However, a study from Archives of Oral Biology proved that allowing dogs to lick your face is dangerous. The study found multiple bacteria types that cause diseases such as periodontal disease.

Leave Toothbrushes Exposed

You keep your toothbrush in a container at the sink next to the toilet. Although you are unable to see it, every time you flush your toilet the contents spray in the air and land on the toothbrush. This same effect happens when a male pees standing up and the urine causes toilet water droplets to splash in the air. 

Pump Gas

Kimberly-Clark Professional performed a study to find the dirtiest places people interact with on the way to work. The study found gas pump handles to be the dirtiest. Two of the biggest reasons for this are that drivers with dirty hands constantly touch the handles and no one ever cleans them.

Wear Backpacks

Your backpack travels to dirty places all day, like gym floors, bathrooms and bus seats. Classroom experiments at Kansas State University found the bottom of a backpack to be dirtier than the top of a toilet seat. A big reason is that you rarely wash it, possibly due to its material. Find a backpack that is safe for the washing machine and wash it weekly.

Use Loofahs

Loofahs allow you to scrub away dirt and dead skin cells to reveal glowing skin underneath. However, those germs and dead skin cells continue to live in the loofah. Relying on your body wash to sanitize a loofah is insufficient. Try to use the same loofah for only a few weeks, and remember to soak the dirty loofah in water and peroxide regularly.

Use Shopping Carts

Take a cleaning wipe with you the next time you head to the grocery store with plans to use a shopping cart. During a University of Arizona study about the cleanliness of shopping carts, researchers found that 72 percent of shopping cart handles had traces of feces on them.

Talk on Cell Phones

People take their cell phones everywhere from the kitchen to the bathroom. Cell phones are often stored in warm places that promote bacteria growth, such as purses. Cell phones have more bacteria on them than a public toilet seat or doorknob. This massive amount of bacteria pressed against your skin increases your likelihood of acne.

Step on Bathroom Mats

One of the dirtiest place in your bathroom is the first place you step after cleaning yourself. Because the mat is wet and left to dry on its own, it often houses mold and bacteria. This is especially true for bathroom mats shared by family members because the mats are frequently wet, prolonging their drying times.

Go To The Swimming Poo...l

The Center for Disease Control has stated that every person who jumps in a swimming pool adds 0.14 grams of fecal matter into the water!

Eat Fast Food

Although fast food is extremely convenient for people on-the-run, it is calculated that a frequent fast food eater will ingest around 12 hairs per year.

Breathe

Everyone releases gasses from time to time (whether you admit it or not). What most people don't know is that the average human inhales one liter of other people's anal gasses on a daily basis!

Blow Candles

It's your birthday. People come over, they give you gifts and they make you laugh. Then, the cake comes and you fill it with your saliva and bacteria before giving them a piece. That's a great way to say "thanks"!

Wear Perfume

Everyone likes to spray a little perfume every now and then; they smell nice and give a good impression. What you probably don't realize is that most perfumes contain ambergris to make the scent last longer. What is ambergris, you ask? It's whale vomit!

Share Headphones

Many people completely forget to clean their ears regularly. If you share your headphones with someone else, you're letting them infect them with all of the germs their ears carry. Don't do it!

Eating while Bowling

There's no doubt about it, bowling alley food is downright delicious: greasy fries, greasy pizza, greasy...fingers. Sticking your digits into those mysterious bowling ball holes then into your mouth is pretty gross when you think about it.

Using Old Sponges

Have you ever smelled a dirty old sponge? Yuck! How could you possible consider using it to clean your dishes? That thing is saturated with bacteria, food, grease and who knows what else.

Shaking Hands

While refusing to shake hands is probably rude, you might want to think about discreetly hitting the bathroom after exchanging pleasantries to give your hand a good scrub.