Some Of The Dirtiest Things You Touch Every Day (And It's Not Even The Toilet Seat)

Pearlyn Tham
Sun, 07 Nov 2021 00:00:00 Z

Make sure you wash your hands often, especially after touching these things.

PHOTO: 123RF

1. Money

Call it dirty money but dollar notes can hold hundreds of thousands of bacteria because they have been passed around for years, from one dirty hand to another dirty hand. Imagine all that filth festering in your expensive designer wallet. Also a good idea to avoid food stalls where the cook handles cash and also your food in the same hand – gloved or ungloved.

2. ATM machines

In England, some experts took swabs from the numeric keypads on a number of ATMs and repeated the process on the seats of public toilet seats. They then compared the swabs from both ATMs and toilet seats in the lab. The result: both sets of samples were found to contain the same bacteria which can cause diarrhoea. Maybe that’s why your ah ma preferred to keep her savings in her biscuit tin box.

3. Public toilet door knobs and handles

Unless each cubicle has its own sink, chances are most of us are touching the door handles and knobs without having washed our pee- or poop-laced hands first.

via GIPHY

4. Shopping carts

A study from the University of Arizona found that these held bacteria, saliva and even faecal matter (but whyyyy?). Think about the food items that you place in them and you’ll be more than willing to bring your own shopping bags or trolley.

5. Light switches

Nobody really bothers about cleaning these in the office, hotel room or in most public places. As a result, they bear the imprints of hundreds or thousands of dirty hands.

6. Condiment bottles

Go ahead and reach out for that bottle of chilli sauce or the pepper shaker in the café. Then imagine how long they have been left there, unwashed. And maybe you won’t find the idea of eating bland and healthy food that bad. The worst? Those refillable tin containers of green chillies or chilli bean oil – it takes a really considerate and diligent employee to wash and dry each one thoroughly every time they refill the containers.

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