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Your Hotel Room Isn't the Only Thing That's Filthy
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]
Filed under: Business
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Germophobe Mar 25th 2007 5:23AM
Animals are always better edubable, because they do not need toiletl paper. Humans are not as educable because they usually do not know what this word is? I do not either.
Carmen Mar 25th 2007 4:07AM
Here's a comment for all of you inconsiderate lady germaphobes who use a public restroom, squat over the toilet seat and spray your nasty droplets for others to sit on. If you insist upon standing to pee...LIFT THE TOILET SEAT! No one wants to sit in your pee puddles! Then afterwards you wash your hands and use the paper towel to open the door and throw the paper towel on the floor! Quit throwing your dirty paper towels on the floor!!!! It's disgusting. No one wants to pick up your germy discards. Can't you at least find a trash container?You may think that you are being clean, but you are truely pigs.
Carmen Mar 25th 2007 4:10AM
My apologies to the pigs...they are actually cleaner than some people.
Steph Mar 25th 2007 5:39AM
Yeah! Stop peeing on the toilet seats-that really irritates me. It's disgusting. By the way, that myth has been busted about being able to catch things on toilet seats; if you think about it, the only thing that actually toutches the seat itself, is your butt cheeks and things.
Steph Mar 25th 2007 5:42AM
Typo on mine-last word is thighs.
Shirley Mar 25th 2007 6:18AM
I agree that a little dirt never hurts, is healthy in fact to allowing our bodies to adjust to the world and hopefully become better able to fight off bacteria that can cause severe illnesses. We absolutely need to wash hands with warm water. You have to really rub the hands to get germs off, they have a system also, it is called "something sticky to help stay on a hand"! LOL. Anyway, I often find myself not hearing that sink even turn on after someone in a stall has left it. VERY NASTY. They think if their hands did not touch their privates that they are clean. But, they touch the Flusher, the door and do not know that toilets spray invisible to the naked eye for 6 foot around the toilet! So, keep that toothbrush in another area! What comes up from that toilet settles everywhere. I learned this in Nursing School. Better safe than sorry. Oh, yes, using too much germicide and too much antibiotics have caused strains of bactera that cannot be killed! So, use some common sense. Always wash hands as soon as possible! You don't need antibacterial if you use good handwashing techniques: rub hands for 15 seconds before rinsing with warm water! That is the very latest! I also agree with the lady who said "don't hand others your nasty used tissues to dispose of, and don't throw used paper towels on the floor. Someone has to clean it all up. Hopefully they wear gloves. Then, the next peeve is litterbugs! Never throw anything out that is not BIODEGRADABLE! Banana peels are ok! LOL!
Katrina Mar 25th 2007 6:43AM
YUCK!... As a person thats forced to enter pubic offices,use public transportation,ect... I try not to touch likely surfaces...
People are inconsiderate pigs!... they know that they have a cold or worse, yet they insist on shareing these maladys with the rest of the world...
The next time you are stuck on a train or worse the New York City subway system in winter, listen for these typhoid marys and marks coughing and sneezing WITHOUT bothering to cover there mouths... I bet you will be surprized by the sheer number of people that just dont bother to at least TRY keep there germs to themseves.
At one of the citys court houses there are various offices that have a employee sickness absents rates of 20% or higher...One thing not mentioned in the above story was that germs need a specific temperature range to propogate... these offices are usualy-
(I know some ones going to scream there heads off that im being sexist)
-populated buy women that also control the thermostats... because these people are always cold and are always cranking up the heat germs run rampent... its a proven fact.
Try being considerate of your fellow human... turn down the heat and where a sweater if your cold,
Never put your fingers in your mouth or bite your nails or rub your eyes in public untill AFTER you've had a chance to wash your hands with hot water and soap,
I always carry a small bottle of anti bacterial lotion...Its not something I use constantly, but its better than nothing... sometimes we have to grab that poll or hand rail bare handed and you have no choise.
AND PLEASE COVER YOUR MOUTH YOU PIGS! Yeah you!
Alexandra Mar 25th 2007 8:00AM
I definitely think the hand sanitizer is overdone. That said, I'm a little freaky about restroom germs and really try to get my kids to go before we leave the house if at all possible. They touch everything! I'll admit that, if the restroom looks really gross, I don't wash my hands in their sink. I'd rather have my *own* germs on my hands than have someone else's germs from a sink that never gets cleaned. They say the sink has way more germs on it than the toilet. But in clean-looking restrooms, I wash.
Laura Mar 25th 2007 10:59AM
I'm Black, so I don't have the power to be a racist
You really think so? You go on to make a general statement about white men. How is that not prejudice?
Susan Mar 25th 2007 1:18PM
Just because you don't hear a sink running after a toilet flush, don't assume the person didn't sanitize their hands. I have a skin condition that soap and water tends to irritate on my hands and I use Purell after each toilet use which is more soothing on my skin. So don't be so quick to judge anyone that doesn't use the sink unless you SEE them come out of the stall and just walk out without doing anything to clean their hands.
Matt Mar 26th 2007 1:34AM
E. Coli and Enterococci come from one main source. Feces. Poop. sh*t. The fact that it's been found on handrails, armrests, shopping cart handles and so forth indicates that people simply do not adequately clean themselves after defecation. Come on folks, it's either that, or we have mysterious invisible people running around flinging feces, right?
Simply put, most people do not clean themselves adequately. Certainly there are those with skin condiations that need to avoid the old soap and water and use anitbacterial products/lotions instead. But that's not MOST people. Most people, simply leave the bathroom stall and do not wash afterwards. Most do not use soap. Many don't even bother with water. There is simply no excuse for that, unless you are that rare individual with a skin condition. Bottom line, there is no excuse for failing to clean up yourself after goin gto the toilet.
But let's be very frank: if you have fecal contaminants on your hands after using the toilet, you have poop on your hands. If you don't wash with soap and water very carefully, you still have poop on your hands. Even if you can't really see it.
If you use a lotion or antibacterial product, you simply have 2 things now on your hands: poop and antibacterial lotion. Until you use soap and water diligently to wash it away, it's still on you. And you and going to get it on me, or on something I'll be touching later.
Most people can be easily observed in public places ,using the toilet and then simply leaving: most of them don't use soap and many don't even use water.
Certainly heavy use of antibacterial products could help create super-bugs. No one really argues against that point. But what we are all missing is that MOST people out there DO NOT wash themselves after using the toilet.
That's why there's so much of the contamination mentioned at the start of this thread. There's poop on their hands. That's where the E. coli comes from. That's the same people who shake your hand in a meeting. The same people using the shopping cart before you do. The same people pushing the elevator button, or holding the handrail before you do.
Just pay attention the next time you are in a public restroom. Most of the people out there ARE SIMPLY NOT cleaning themselves properly, or at all.
It's disgusting. It's rude. It's unsanitary. It's unsafe. And clearly the same unsafe and unclean behaviors are being instilled in the next generation and might explain why the daycare centers and playgrounds are even more dirty still.
Honestly, with all the flying that I do, I worry far less about terrorists than I do about daily exposure to the bacteria and poop on the hands of the unwashed masses that can't even bother to turn on a sink and get a squirt of soap, and then put those same hands all over all the things in public that I have to touch. I'm far more likely to get sick and die from E Coli from some lazy unwashed traveler that I am to get blown up by a terrorist.
LORI Mar 26th 2007 4:09PM
ALWAYS TAKE THE BEDSPREAD OFF THE BED WHEN YOU STAY IN A HOTEL. THERES GERMS, SPERM, AND YOU NAME IT ON IT! HOTELS DO NOT WASH THEIR BEDSPREADS BUT ONCE A YEAR.
EX-HOTEL WORKER