Wash your hands! ‘Nuff said!

“In Britain, one in 10 bank cards (10%) and one in seven notes (14%) were found to be contaminated with some faecal organisms, the research, carried out at Queen Mary, University of London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, showed. More than a quarter (26%) of hands sampled showed traces of faecal contamination including bacteria such as E.coli, the study found.

Samples were taken from 272 people from east and west London, Birmingham and Liverpool – and in total 816 specimens were collected. Out of the samples taken, the cards and notes in Birmingham showed the most contamination, with faecal matter detected on 17% of specimens.

More than one in three (35%) of hands sampled from Birmingham harboured traces of faecal contamination. A fifth (20%) of hands surveyed in east and west London were found to have traces of faecal contamination. The most “grossly” contaminated cards and notes came from east London with 8% of cards and 11% of notes holding levels of bacteria that were comparable to a dirty toilet bowl.”

Gah. Gross. I’m not saying that American hands are any better. I shudder to imagine what the results of such a stateside study would find. Read the story.