Heading back to school is full of fun and exciting moments for children. But it's also exposing them to several germ breeding grounds at a time in their lives when they are more susceptible to germs because their immune systems aren't fully developed.

Even children who practice good hygiene, such as covering their coughs and thoroughly washing their hands, likely will come in contact with millions of germs. Of course, every location varies based on cleaning habits and traffic patterns, but here are the places experts tend to find the most germs:

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1) Water fountain spigot in classroom. The NSF, a public health and safety organization, sampled two Michigan elementary classrooms and found 2.7 million colony forming units per square inch on the water spigot in the classroom (compared to 62,000 in the cafeteria water fountain spigot).

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2) Gym equipment. Yep. The Journal-News reports that: "The Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found 63 percent of gym equipment is contaminated with rhinovirus, which causes the common cold." Think of how many balls, jump ropes, goals, etc., your child touches at school or day care.

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3) Desks. If you think about it, that's where students spend the most time, whether it be reading and taking notes or sneezing and chewing on the end of their pens. Some students sit at several desks throughout the day, so their potential to spread and pick up germs is multiplied, as The Journal-News article describes.

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4) Playground equipment. In line with the theme of the last two items, playground equipment at both schools and day cares tend to get touched often (maybe before or after children touch their mouths, noses or eyes) and aren't frequently cleaned, so playground equipment can become a packed interstate for germs.

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5) Other students' poor habits. According to WebMD, a study of middle school and high school students found "about half washed their hands after using the bathroom—and only 33 percent of the girls and 8 percent of the boys used soap." And, that could make the bathroom doors the most germ-ridden spot in the bathroom, CNN reports. (That NSF study found the same number of germs on a student's hand as on an animal cage.)

So, taken together, that means your children aren't just bringing home study materials and projects to hang on the fridge; they are bringing home germs that could help the whole family get sick.

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BYO-Safe Environment, which is based in Billings, has a system that can disinfect your whole house (including hard-to-reach and hard-to-clean spots) with a solution that will keep killing germs, mold and mildew for weeks (and even years, depending on environmental conditions.)

BYO-Safe Environment uses an electrostatic wrap-around spray that is quicker, covers better and lasts longer than other cleaning methods, such as wiping surfaces down with bleach products. As the solution wraps around the surface, the positively-charged particles tend to be attracted to the neutral or negatively-charged surfaces and distribute themselves over them evenly. No corners are missed to become grimy breeding grounds.

All this means that with BYO-Safe Environment, you could kill the ickies your children bring home from day care and school NOW and still be covered when flu season rolls around.

Ready to get started? Call BYO-Safe Environment at 406-861-8881 or message them here.

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