"The average keyboard is definitely filthier than a toilet bowl" he said. "It is a huge problem. We have swabbed keyboards in Sydney, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore and we have found golden staph mainly, then E coli and candida, as well.

"(With) someone sitting at a terminal keyboard, the natural thing for them is to start touching their ears or picking their nose. Or if someone has a cold and sneezes, then starts touching the keyboard, there is a likelihood that people will get the cold. And it is the same with the SARS virus."

The bacterium found on keyboards can cause upset stomachs, vomiting, urinary tract infections and respiratory ailments. An estimated 60% of all illnesses are contracted in the work place and Mr Goldsworthy believes unhygienic keyboards may be part of the problem.

He commissioned tests on keyboards in a major NSW public hospital and when golden staph was detected, he was not surprised. He said Australia was behind the rest of the world in acknowledging the potential spread of disease through the keyboard.

After September 11 terrorist attacks, his company cleaned 1,000 keyboards for the US company Credit Swiss First Boston in Tokyo. "It was a preventative step because of the anthrax scare," said Brett Holliday of Great Southern Coatings. "We had to dispose of 15% of the keyboards. Some of them had bacteria growing underneath. Each worker in the company now has their own cleaning kit. It's crazy if this doesn't become common in Australia."

Senior lecturer at Sydney University's Department of Microbiology, Dr Dee Carter, said people need to be aware that keyboards are a regularly touched surface. "For disease to be transferred, the next person using the keyboard would have to touch their eyes or put their hands in their mouth", she said. "People need to be more careful".