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The pandemic has not been showing signs of slowing down in Arizona, and health care providers have also been warning about cold and flu season.

New research also shows there may be a household chore that we also need to be careful about, in terms of disease transmission: doing the laundry.

Chuck Gerba, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Arizona, has studied the best ways to sort, handle and wash laundry to minimize the spread of germs and viruses.

Gerba and his fellow researchers, were brought together by the American Cleaning Institute, which represents companies in the cleaning products industry.

The Show spoke with Gerba more about what he found, and how to avoid spreading disease through dirty clothes.

“In our studies, we found that the average pair of adult underwear contains about one-quarter of a Southwest Airlines peanut, by weight, of fecal matter.”
— Chuck Gerba

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