Experts have found that cash machines carry same amounts and kinds of bacteria as a public toilet. They took swabs from both places and found pseudomonads and bacillus bacteria types, both of which are behind common afflictions such as diarrhea.
According to microbiologist Dr Richard Hastings, these findings are unexpected. He said, “We were surprised by our results because the ATM machines were shown to be heavily contaminated.” This examination came in after a survey for company BioCote found the top ten dirtiest places in the eyes of the public. More than 42 per cent thought cash machines dirty which made to the tenth dirtiest place.
The study involving 3,000 adults also revealed public telephones are considered the biggest health risk. Dr Richard Hastings added, “Public telephones can be a real hot spot for germs and grime… Not only are they handled by different people each day, but the handsets are then held close to people’s nose and mouth… All it takes is for one person to have a cold or bug and this would get passed on to everyone else who uses the phone… But it’s ironic that while people perceive chip and pin pads to be the least dirtiest, our swabbing experiments have actually shown them to be dirtier than public lavatories.”
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