Recently, we mentioned how disgusting hotel rooms are. Guess what? Even though some hotel rooms are laden with E. coli and Enterococci, they aren’t nearly as bad as public restrooms. Right? Maybe. But guess what? Public poopers aren’t nearly as bad as playgrounds, the farms of the germ world.
A team of scientists recently took some very hot showers after spending four years collecting nearly 1,100 samples at places like airports, restaurants, offices and bathrooms. According to them, the most frequently contaminated areas were:
- Playgrounds and day care centers (46 percent of which showed high levels of contamination)
- Public restroom surfaces (25 percent)
- Public transportation handrails and armrests and shopping cart handles (21 percent)
- Escalator handrails (19 percent)
- Vending machine buttons (14 percent)
- Public phones (13 percent)
Fortunately, other studies have confirmed what your mother taught you: WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER. Doing this can reduce the risk of illness by about 50 percent. Alternatively, of course, you can carry a portable UV germ killer with you. Dude, whatever, just clean yourself up!
[Photo: ferrous]