This post is dedicated to Danielle and all the others in micro lab. Did you realize how dirty your cell phone might be? Check out these links:
Cell phone video
Cell phone video 2
And these are just normal people not students taking microbiology! (Not that you all aren't normal!)
You also might be interested in this information ranking contaminated objects obtained by Myth Busters:
Many objects that people touch every day are dirtier than a toilet seat.
Confirmed
Adam and Jamie chose a total of 8 objects to test for cleanliness: toilet seat, money, kitchen sponge, hotel room remote, computer keyboard, light switch, cell phone, and shopping cart. They swabbed each surface for 10 seconds and created Petri dishes from the swabs that incubated overnight. Their first method of measurement was to count the number of microorganism colonies on each dish. They found that the toilet seat sample actually had the fewest colonies, while the kitchen sponge sample had more than they could count:
- kitchen sponge (most colonies)
- money
- light switch
- computer keyboard
- hotel remote
- shopping cart
- cell phone
- toilet seat (fewest colonies)
- kitchen sponge (most nasty)
- money
- light switch
- computer keyboard
- toilet seat
- cell phone
- shopping cart
- hotel remote (least nasty)
- kitchen sponge (most dirty)
- money
- computer keyboard
- toilet seat
- light switch (least dirty)
12 comments:
Mythbusters has another interesting test they did about double dipping where they took samples from "sterile" salsa and double dipped salsa link: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/db/food/double-dipping-is-germ-warfare.html
It kinda ruins salsa for you but if you get a chance you should watch it.
In my other Microbiology class I performed a similar experiment. We were told to swab items that we thought we "cleaner than a toilet seat". I swabbed my backpack and my purse. The results were surprising and unsettling. My purse and backpack had a variety of organisms, more than the door handle of the classroom. After thinking about all the places that I sit my purse and backpack the results made sense. After this experiment I decided to get rid of that purse and backpack and be more conscience of where I place those items.
Wow, the cell phone videos were so scary! LOL...I would never have thought to clean my phone before now, but I do believe I will start cleaning at least daily, and will definitely not allow strangers to use it. Who knows what they could be carrying??? I think swabbing our cell phones in lab one day would be fun and very informative. :) Also, I don't guess I ever considered the risk of contamination on computer keyboards and hotel remotes, but it makes sense considering the amount of daily contact they get...yuck!
I never really thought about the fact that I clean my bathroom more than my phone. Which is odd because when I think about it my phone probably comes in contact with more bacteria than anything. Since the kitchen spounge was the most dirty I decided to look up methods to prevent kill the bacteria. I am not sure how true this is but I have found pages on the internet and watched a myth busters episode on placing a wet spounge in the microwave for at least 120 seconds. I do this at home so I hope it works lol
I saw that episode of Mythbusters before! This is very important to consider. Medical Technologists and Clinical Laboratory Scientists that are doing work in the microbiology lab are exposed to all kinds of bugs that do not exist in healthy individuals. I for one have been cleaning a lot more than i used to. Seeing some of the nasty bugs in the lab makes you really think more about staying safe and trying to expose yourself to as little as you can. We are definitely more at risk of getting bad bacterial infections because of the work that we do! Lysol works!
This post only confirmed my previous suspicions. I suspected that the sink was a very dirty place because all kinds of different foods and nutrients required for bacterial growth pass through the sink. The best way to take care of these organisms is to use bleach very often on all utensils that come in contact with the sink.
I hate to even say it,but I was told this and use to not believe it. Cell phones offically gross me out. I also was using a sponge in the kitchen, but I threw it away. I will be more careful in cleaning the areas listed. I mean my cell phone usually is only used by me, but I guess you don't really think about all the "bugs" untill you take a course in this.
The nastiness of the kitchen sponge bothers me a lot. I mean, we use a sponge to clean dishes and eating utensils, and we have to eat with the plates.... ewww.
I change the sponge in my house a lot (about once every week). But I am still wondering how true it is to clean your sponge in the microwave. I may have to do that everyday now.
I always thought that kitchen sponges are the nastiest thing ever. Why would someone want to clean eating utensils with something that carries millions of bacterias and nasty stuff!!! It is very recommended to change the sponge at least once a week to prevent bacterial contamination to get into your eating utensils. You can easily make someone in the house get sick or infected by not taking care of what you use to clean the eating utensils. I Also enjoyed watching the videos you posted about cell phone.
I too did an experiment in an older microbiology class and our results were surprising. Just as the cellphone was found to be nastier than a toilet, we cultured the bottom of someone's shoes. I know that we think of shoes as dirty but we don't consider them dirtier than a toilet. Imagine propping a toilet on the coffee table. Our class found that the bottom of peoples shoes were nastier than any object we swabbed including a payphone. I have since stopped removing my shoes and keeping them in my bedroom. I now keep them in a closet near the carport.
I have heard about how dirty cell phones could be before. In my prerequisites microbiology because we actually swabbed our own cell phones to see what we got. I can thankfully say mine didn't grow anything, because I had just cleaned it. If it would have been on another day I might not have been so lucky. We really need to be careful what we put to our face each day.
I didn’t know that a kitchen sponge is dirtier than a toilet seat and is number 1 for the most colonies because I use sponges to wash my dishes every day, but I use antibacterial dish detergent with it so I guess my dishes are clean. It makes sense that money is dirty because anyone can touch it like when you get it from the bank or get change from the grocery store. That’s a very interesting topic and I really didn’t know that these everything objects that we touch everyday can be that dirty and I guess we should clean these more often.
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