If you’re going to go anti-bacterial, silver is the only way to go

A few years ago, a middle-school student compared the bacteria levels of a public toilet with bacteria levels in a fast-food restaurant ice machine and the ice machine won. It had more bacteria than the toilet bowls.

Ewwww.

So now it’s time again to check your gag reflex at the door, because we’re about to compare bacteria levels of toilets with commonly touched items.

And you know exactly where this is headed.

This time the test was conducted in busy downtown centers in London and other UK cities. And the top spot on the bacterial filth list was a tie between public toilets and ATM machines.

The other “winners”:
2. Phone booths
3. Bus stops
4. London Underground and metro stations
5. Bus seats

The study was conducted by microbiologists for BioCote, a company that produces anti-bacterial coatings for all kinds of surfaces. Like…ATMs. So with a potential conflict of interest, we’ll have to take the results with a grain of salt.

Out of curiosity, I checked BioCote’s website, figuring I would find a company intent on covering the earth with triclosan, the antimicrobial agent used in soaps, deodorants, toothpastes, etc. The widespread use of this junk promotes antibiotic resistance and might even interfere with your body’s hormone regulation. Nice!

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that BioCote doesn’t produce any triclosan products at all.

Know what they use instead? Silver.

Nice! (Without the sarcasm this time.)

That’s an excellent choice because silver kills bacteria without contributing to antibiotic resistance.

Now BioCote needs to get to work on a silver coating for that bacteria-covered stuff you pull out of an ATM: cash.

Ewwww.

Sources:
“Germ tests prove cash machines are ‘as dirty as public toilets’” Daily Mail, 1/11/11, dailymail.co.uk