Mix of office supplies and gadgets on a wooden table background. View from above.

The common office desk is filthy. One of the main reasons that desks gather so much germs is that they're so often contacted by soiled hands. Hoping to reduce contamination, one medical professional has developed a device that cleans writing utensils, reports ClickOnDetroit.

Todd Roberts, clinical coordinator at Orlando Health’s Cancer Center, invented The CleanBlock. For The CleanBLock to work, one most store pens in the device when they are not being used. The device itself is filed with a 70 percent ethanol alcohol solutions.

Roberts says The CleanBlock eliminates 99 percent of the germs found on a pen within seconds.