Researchers revealed that grocery store shopping cart handles are one of the worst public places for germs. How germy can shopping carts really be? Very, according to researchers at the University of Arizona who tested all kinds of public surfaces. They found that shopping carts were loaded with more saliva, bacteria and even fecal matter than escalators, public telephones, and even public bathrooms.
"Every kid in America teethes on shopping cart handles," said Dr. Chuck Gerba at the University of Arizona. "They don't have the best sanitary habits. ... I mean, you're putting your broccoli where their butt was."
The only surfaces that had more germs were playground equipment and bus rails.
After going shopping first thing this morning, I feel so dirty now.
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Uh, ew. Like, really, ew. I'll be washing my hands more often after shopping. Maybe during.
Those little bottles of waterless hand sanitizer are your friend!
Of course, money is also pretty dirty in its own right, especially coins.
Good old Chuck Gerba. He's always good for an "ewwwww" moment.
IIRC he did the toothbrush-in-the-bathroom-toilet-aerosol study, too.
He was on one of my friend's PhD committees, and I'll tell ya, that guy is funnier than all get out, as long as you aren't trying to eat.
MikeG
Good thing Howard Hughes is dead. Someone had ot shop for him and likely pass on shopping-cart germs. On one hand I choose to think positively and to believe my immune system is all the better for the challenges; but then on the other I think of the homeless people I have seen aimlessly pushing a cart around my local Kroger's, which serves a mixed community of expensive homes as well as a local barrio. Yuck. Fecal matter.
At first, I was feeling pretty good about my recent loss-of-car, because now I only use the little baskets, the better to avoid buying too much to easily carry home.
Then I got to the part about bus rails. Damnit, I can't win!