You may be the most clean conscious person in your household, but you're probably still living with a major germ magnet right under your nose...or finger, for that matter. Recent studies at a number of major universities have confirmed that a TV remote control is the single dirtiest item in a typical home and a hotbed for contagious germs and viruses.

It is one of the most commonly overlooked household objects that nearly every American comes into contact with multiple times per day. Your remote gets dropped on the floor, lost in the couch, coughed on, sneezed on, spilled on, and covered with any number of sticky messes. Most remotes are not designed to be easily cleanable and some TV remotes with a lot of nooks and crannies can't be cleaned well even if you try to do so.

This is true even for hotels, hospitals and businesses that have professional cleaning crews working hard to provide a safe and clean environment for guests. In fact, the remote control in a typical hotel room is considered dirtier than the toilet, sink handles, door handles, and even the infamous bedspread, according to Dr. Charles Gerba in the environmental microbiology department at the University of Arizona.

In addition to containing unpleasant remnants of urine, semen or feces, TV remote controls can also play host to a number of cold viruses and other germs.

Researchers at the University of Virginia found that half of the remote controls that they tested for cold viruses had positive results. Active germs can live on remotes for at least 24 hours and can pass on a cold with as little as one push of the button.

Now, there's not much you can do to remove the health threat from your current TV remote, but a new remote is now on the market that offers a safe and inexpensive alternative. The Clean Remote is the brainchild of Daniel Ruback and Michael Monsky, two cousins who run a company called New Remotes, Inc. (NRI)

"It was peanut butter," chuckled NRI Senior Vice-President Ruback, as he explained how his cousin, NRI President Monsky, came up with the original idea. "Monsky's young son accidentally got peanut butter on a remote. When Monsky tried to wipe the remote clean, he found it impossible, and that is what led to the design of the Clean Remote," said Ruback in an interview with PR Newswire.

The Clean Remote is a universal TV remote that has a flat, nonporous, bacterial-resistant surface with raised bumps in place of buttons. The health-minded remote is easy to wipe clean with disinfectant, leaving no cracks or crevices for germs and messes to hide inside.

The new remote is raising the bar for standard cleanliness in hotel chains, hospitals and assisted living facilities around the country. UCLA Medical Center and Best Western, the world's largest hotel chain, are just two of the big name institutions that are making the switch from bacteria-laden TV remotes to the Clean Remote. If you would like to make the switch as well, check out Clean Remote where you can purchase a new remote for only $14.95.