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“7 Germiest public places”

by on Feb. 12, 2012, under Health, Life

Just got my March 2012 issue of Prevention Magazine, and on pages 39 & 40 is an article entitled “7 Germiest Public Places” –enough to put the fear into anyone who dares to venture out into the public.

Here’s their list (and see if you agree with the results):

71% of gas pump handles

68% of sidewalk mailbox handles

43% of escalator rails

41% of ATM buttons

40% of parking meters

35% of crosswalk buttons

35% of vending machine buttons

The article says this research was done by Kimnberly-Clark Professional. Six major cites were studied in which testers checked for ATP (adenosine triphosphate, which exists in all bacteria.)

Noticed that the study did not include faucets of public bathrooms, which are reportedly quite dirty.

Now I know why we probably should be carrying those hand sanitizers, towelettes, or using gloves when we touch anything that other people touch. Public libraries in Pima County have those sanitizer stands to use after you touch the keys of the library computers, utilized by many patrons over the course of one 10 hour day.

Tucson doesn’t have a lot of sidewalk mailboxes left, nor a lot of escalators since we don’t have that many high-rises, but we do have elevators (whose buttons are probably just as germ covered).

Readers — do you agree with the results? Will this knowledge change your behavior in public places such as washing your hands more frequently? Yesterday I touched a pedestrian button to cross a street, and recoiled afterwards thinking of the germs on that button.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 8:47 am and is filed under Health, Life. Tags for this post: , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Karyn_Zoldan

    I’m surprised it didn’t say restroom door knobs. If I go into the restroom to wash my hands before I eat and then touch the door knob on my way out, I’m undoing my clean deed. I hate being paranoid though but must buy more sanitizer for my purse.

  • Carolyn_Classen

    Thanks Karyn.  I think the study focused on commuting from home to work, not stopping at public restrooms along the way. I agree that public restrooms could be dirty, so I try to use paper towels instead of my hands to touch things in them, and I push open/close a door with my shoulder without using the door knobs.

  • Jonathan_Duhamel

    According to AARP you can add restaurant menus, lemon wedges on drinks, shopping carts, and doctor’s offices (don’t touch the magazines).

    • Carolyn_Classen

      Maybe we shouldn’t dare to venture into the public, as I said before…I figured shopping cart handles were full of germs, and I usually use toothpicks to pick up lemon wedges, and never ever read magazines in doctor’s/dentist’s offices. But how do we pick up menus w/o touching them, short of carrying plastic gloves with us?  A friend of mine just wrote via email & said she uses gloves to pump gas. And what about using seat handles on the bus?

  • billygumbo

    grocery store shopping carts !!

  • alohapuna

    If you worry about all these things all the time, you may as well just stay home. We are surrounded by germs 24 hours a day. My mother always said you will eat a bushel of dirt before you die.

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