When it comes to being clean, your office desktop is far behind your toilet seat.

A new study by a researcher at the University of Arizona has found that when it comes to being clean, your office desktop is far behind your toilet seat.

The study, by Professor Charles Gerba showed that the average desktop in the office has 400 times more bacteria than the average office toilet seat.

Prof Gerba, who tested more than 100 offices at the university and in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon and Washington, as a part of the study commissioned by disinfectant maker Clorox, also found that a woman¡¯s work area has more germs that that of a man.

This, he found, is due to the habit of women of stashing snacks in their drawers.

Prof Gerba noted that women have three to four times the amount of germs in, on and around their desks, phones, computers, keyboards, drawers and personal items than men.

"I thought for sure men would be germier. But women have more interactions with small children and keep food in their desks. The other problem is makeup," the Daily Mail quoted him, as telling the Arizona Daily Star.

"I was really surprised how much food there was in a woman's desk. If there's ever a famine, that's the first place I'll look for food," he added.

However, men are not completely germ-free themselves, for their wallets hold a lot of bacteria.

"It's in your back pocket where it's nice and warm, it's a great incubator for bacteria," he said.