Mayim Bialik Talks ‘Better’ Way to Eliminate Bacteria for New Bounty Paper Towels Campaign (Exclusive)

Like the rest of the world, actress Mayim Bialik found herself deep cleaning more than she ever had while in quarantine from the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the neuroscientist, and former Big Bang Theory star, has partnered with Bounty Paper Towels to help spread the word of how important is to “not to drag around bacteria” when cleaning. Speaking about her process before joining the partnership and connecting with other scientists and bacteria experts, Bialik quipped, “I’m one of those people who kind of always uses dishrags because that’s just how I am, that’s how I clean.”

She continued, “Obviously this last year has changed the way a lot of us think about a lot of things and one of the things that I just started to think about more was how we clean and the kind of care that we’ve needed to have in this COVID era.” One of the biggest things Bialik realized she had to change was what she used to clean up messes, and credits her children for helping her make the switch. “My kids finally said to me, it’s time for us to stop using dishrags and dish towels. So enter this Bounty campaign, and it just felt like such a great fit because it’s true. Sometimes the kind of thing to do is not to drag around bacteria. Even if you feel like it’s better, it’s not.”

According to infectious disease expert and microbiologist Jessica Rivera — who is also part of the Bounty campaign — “used dishcloths can be a haven for bacteria. Because they are multipurpose and often go unwashed between uses, the wet and absorbent nature of the product can provide a flourishing environment for bacteria to grow.” Rivera’s fellow microbiologist Kennen Hutchison, a virology PhD student, added, “Studies have confirmed that used dishcloths can contain E. coli and coliform bacteria (fecal contamination) which isn’t visible to the naked eye. And when you wipe up a spill on the counter with a used towel or dry a dish, you could cross-contaminate multiple surfaces.”

Bialik knows that this data is not great news, but “wasn’t necessarily surprised,” considering she is “both a scientist and someone who spends a lot of time actually being the one cleaning my house.” She added, “I guess I was surprised like how long I was comfortable being in denial about that. Because it’s not like I didn’t know those things.” The actress explained that it was just within the past year that she realized she needed “to stop just reciting those statistics and knowing those things and actually incorporating them into a safer solution.”

In true form, Bialik also very candidly, and hilariously, said that she doesn’t think she does “a great job” cleaning her own home, but she absolutely does her best. Finally, she made the very astute point that due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people have fallen into a serious cleaning habit because it makes “us less anxious about what we don’t know.” This is good, Bialik says, and encourages everyone to “keep up a level of vigilance” in the fight against harmful bacteria and viruses.