Kara Kovalchik
11 Things Germier Than Toilet Seats
by Kara Kovalchik - January 11, 2012 - 11:11 AM

People are understandably squeamish about public restrooms. But the same people are probably regularly interacting with surfaces that have far more germs and overall icky-ness than your average public toilet seat. For example…

1. Hotel/Motel Bedspread

Unlike the sheets, hotels and motels do not change or launder the bedspreads on a daily basis. It’s actually more of an annual thing. And if you don’t think there are various bodily fluids lingering in those coverings, let us remind you that when the bedspread from an internationally ranked five-star hotel was introduced as evidence in boxer Mike Tyson’s rape trial, investigators found it coated with the DNA of so many different men that it took some significant time to finally isolate traces of Tyson’s contribution.

2. Purse Bottoms

Many women who fear the germs of public toilet seats don’t think twice about placing their purses down on the floor of the bathroom stall. Not only that, they also set them on the floor while riding the bus, or while dining at a restaurant, or while dancing at a nightclub, or on the bedspread at a hotel (see above). And then, when they get home, they set that same purse on the kitchen counter or the dining room table while they rifle through the daily mail or check their phone messages.

Nelson Laboratories of Salt Lake City tested a random selection of ladies’ purses: those belonging to moms, executive types, and swinging singles. What did they find? Pseudomonas, staphylococcus aurous, salmonella, and e-coli. Many of the handbags had fecal contamination, and those belonging to the women that frequented dance clubs also had traces of vomit. In layman’s terms, the pocketbooks were infested with harmful bacteria, the types that can cause all sorts of infections.

3. ATM Keypad

Studies have shown that the various keys on your average ATM serve as a cozy nesting place for Bacillus Cereus, a bacterium that can cause symptoms in humans similar to those of food poisoning. Yet folks casually punch those buttons and then go about their business without a second thought, touching their eye area to assuage an itch or holding the Egg McMuffin that they’re munching during their morning commute.

4. Office Telephone

Have you ever used a corporate telephone other than the one on your desk? Who knows what evils lurk on that communal device… other than the 25,127 germs found in a square inch on the average telephone receiver as discovered in a 2004 University of Arizona study. Think about it… the person who used that phone before you might not have the same fastidious hand-washing habits as you, and he/she may have answered a call immediately upon exiting the bathroom…

5. Restaurant Menu

Servers barely have enough time to take an order from table 11 and then rush to tables 14 and 17 to deliver that extra side of Ranch dressing and a round of beverages, respectively. Do we really expect them to wipe down the restaurant’s oft-handled menus with anti-bacterial wipes in their “spare” time? The Journal of Medical Virology has reported that flu viruses can survive on a hard surface for as long as 18 hours. Think of how many hands have touched that bill of fare before you browsed over it and then immediately used your fingers to transport dinner rolls or breadsticks directly to your mouth.

6. Condiment Containers

Speaking of restaurants and germs living on hard surfaces, how many of you disinfect your hands in between handling the ketchup bottle or salt/pepper shakers and your food?

7. Grocery Carts

So you’re afraid to set your naked hindquarters on a toilet seat that is routinely cleaned with bleach-infused products, but you push a grocery cart through your local supermarket bare-handed? The handle of which has been touched by folks who’ve coughed or sneezed into their hands and have also handled packages of raw meat? And those of you who place items in the fold-out children’s seat – does it not occur to you that many a child’s diapered bottom has previously occupied that space? A four-year study conducted by the University of Arizona at supermarkets in Tucson, San Francisco, Chicago, and Tampa revealed that shopping buggies were rife with such bacteria and viruses as E. coli, salmonella, and Staphylococcus.

8. Steering Wheel

As mentioned above, public toilet seats are washed on a regular basis, but when is the last time you scrubbed down the steering wheel of your vehicle? During a typical day you might touch things such as a gas pump dispenser, cash from the bank drive-thru window, and your crying child’s runny nose in the back seat, and then use those same hands to grip the steering wheel after every transaction without any disinfecting in between. Oh, did I mention that some of us also eat food and apply eye makeup while driving with those same hands that are gripping the germ-laden (mainly with bacillus cereus and arthrobacter) steering wheel?

9. Kitchen Faucet Handle(s)

Dr. Charles Gerba, an environmental biologist at the University of Arizona, once declared that if an alien from another planet landed in an average Earth household, he would determine (after a careful bacterial count) that he should wash his hands in the toilet and use the kitchen sink as a commode. Yep, our kitchen sponges and faucet handles are that contaminated with nasties, mainly because we tend to touch these items many times in the midst of handling raw meat, eggs, and poultry while preparing a meal.

10. Gym Equipment

How many of you who work out regularly at a gym grip the handrails on the treadmill or the handlebars on the stationary bike without a second thought? Or perhaps you grasp a series of different free weights during your strength-building workout. Odds are that at sometime during your workout you’ll swipe a sweaty fist across your eyes or scratch an itch some place on your person (an innocent, unconscious activity that might break the skin and unintentionally place a virtual welcome mat inviting infection). You might be interested to know that the nasty “superbug” methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (better known as MRSA), which can survive on non-host surfaces for up to a month, has been found on various gym machines in studies done across the U.S. That’s in addition to the sarcinia, candida specie, and staphylococcus epi that was also harvested from the various standard gym apparatus. And don’t get us started on what was found on the floors of the showers…

11. Swings and Monkey Bars and Such

OK, this particular hotbed of germs might affect your offspring more than you, but it’s certainly worth a mention, especially if you allow your child to munch on snacks while they romp. If your child ever frolics on the monkey bars, jungle gym, swings, ball pit, etc., of a communal play area, then his hands are a virtual Petri dish of disgustingness after each and every play date. Besides the traces of human fecal material found on such equipment in many studies, there is also the fact that kids with runny noses tend to use their hands as handkerchiefs while playing, and various birds in the area use playground equipment as their personal comfort station.

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Comments (39)

  1. Ewwwww. Reaching for the hand sanitizer.

    posted by Ronda Lamm on 1-11-2012 at 11:30 am

  2. I’m really glad Grandma doesn’t have the internet and thus can not read this. I’m twenty-eight, and she reminded me not to sit on a public toilet seat until I was twenty-five.

    posted by Sara in AL on 1-11-2012 at 11:35 am

  3. Gross. I hate how restaurant menus and condiment containers get sticky. I’ve never been happier that I wash my hands as soon as I get home, no matter where I was. However, I clean my faucet handles every day and I’ve never been happier about it.

    posted by christina on 1-11-2012 at 11:53 am

  4. money may be the dirtiest thing I can think of that people handle every day. Just look at the dates on some of the coins in your pocket – WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN????

    posted by Darrell on 1-11-2012 at 11:54 am

  5. i abide by George Carlin’s rules regarding germs, so for me, this list is for the birds… except for the hotel bedspread thing. that’s absolutely disgusting

    posted by markshek on 1-11-2012 at 11:55 am

  6. Speaking of condiments I refuse to use ketchup at any restaurant that has it in glass bottles. Iconic though they may be, how many people used or licked their knife and then stuck in the bottle? EW EW EW!

    posted by nihil on 1-11-2012 at 11:56 am

  7. I am a full blown germ-a-phoebe so none of this is news to me. I am constantly cringing when I am out in public. The things people do are gross!!! I hate it when a clerk takes my money or credit card and then grabs a cup or a lid for my cup and touches the part I am supposed to drink from! Blech! An free samples at stores… I won’t even start on that!

    posted by Jes on 1-11-2012 at 12:02 pm

  8. And cell phones, ewwwwww!

    posted by Jes on 1-11-2012 at 12:03 pm

  9. Overall, I think we worry way too much about germs, after all, the human body is basically a walking colony of microbes. A healthy immune system can handle most everyday germs. However I think I’ll be packing my own blankets next time I plan on staying at a hotel. Ick!

    posted by piffany on 1-11-2012 at 12:10 pm

  10. Actually the grossest and dirtiest thing in a hotel room is the remote. Everyone touches it and leaves all their gross stuff on it.

    posted by scal on 1-11-2012 at 12:16 pm

  11. And remember most of your body is made up of bacteria anyways, so being super sensitive to germs is a moot point.

    posted by scal on 1-11-2012 at 12:18 pm

  12. A germ-riddled landscape could be good for you.

    One emerging theory, with mounting evidence, is that the meteoric rise in allergies over the past century is because our immune systems are bored.

    It goes this way: We have cleansed our environments so free of microbes that our immune system does not have enough to battle. So, it wages war against things that are not a threat to our health – causing health problems.

    posted by n2y2 on 1-11-2012 at 1:20 pm

  13. I too was grossed out by the list but I refuse to not live my life comfortably because of ‘where have they been’ questions. I can’t be scared of doing things in everyday life just because objects I touch are filthy. I figure my body is okay so far and it will continue to fight off things (hopefully). The only thing I do is don’t touch my face and ALWAYS wash my hands before eating, even if I’m at home. Always. It has worked out pretty well so far.

    posted by Pink Coat on 1-11-2012 at 2:28 pm

  14. None of these surprise me. I tolerate a lot of “good natured” abuse and teasing from friends and family when I pull out my hand sanitizer or insist on hand-washing, but I haven’t had a cold (that my husband didn’t pass on to me) or GI virus in years.

    posted by Beth on 1-11-2012 at 2:55 pm

  15. Germs, they don’t try to kill me – I don’t try to kill them. Live and let live, I say

    posted by Kassie on 1-11-2012 at 3:54 pm

  16. Ill just follow George Carlins lead on this one:

    “So personally I never take any precautions against germs. I don’t shy away from people who sneeze and cough. I don’t wipe off the telephone, I don’t cover the toilet seat, and if I drop food on the floor I pick it up and eat it!Even if I’m at side walk cafe! IN CALCUTTA! THE POOR SECTION! ON NEW YEARS MORNING DURING A SOCCER RIOT! And you know something? In spite of all the so called “risky behavior “…. I never get infections. I don’t get em. I don’t get colds, I don’t get flu, I don’t get headaches, I don’t get upset stomach, And you know why? Cause I got a good strong immune system! And it gets a lot of practice!

    My immune system is equipped with the biological equivalent of fully automatic military assault rifles, with night vision and laser scopes. And we have recently acquired phosphorous grenades, cluster bombs and anti personnel fragmentation mines.”
    -George Carlin

    posted by Matt on 1-11-2012 at 4:59 pm

  17. Seen a study on a Doctor’s stethoscope.
    Pretty gross.

    posted by Dean on 1-11-2012 at 5:15 pm

  18. I’d rather not put my purse on a bathroom floor, but not all public bathrooms have a hook on the stall door or wall.

    posted by Vicki on 1-11-2012 at 5:18 pm

  19. I think it’s all about perception. I don’t particularly want to eat off a toilet seat, yet I have no problem with many of these items that are much filthier. Why? Because even though I know rationally what’s on these things it’s all out of sight, out of mind.

    Imagine if we COULD see these microscopic organisms? You’d go crazy! Millions of dust mites in your bed that look like gross looking spiders, you’d never get any sleep. My wife is freaked out just by knowing there is ONE visible spider somewhere in the room.

    The point is, don’t think about it. Just live your life the way you always have, you don’t need to scrub down every surface you come in contact with, germs are everywhere, just come to grips with it.

    posted by TheBear on 1-11-2012 at 5:45 pm

  20. This list doesn’t scare me!!!

    If you guys had any idea what your body comes in contact with every day of your life, you would go screaming into the night.

    We have immune systems. That is why we are all not dead yet.

    posted by Morris on 1-11-2012 at 6:00 pm

  21. The scariest part is I think I recognise that hotel room!
    From Amarillo, Texas.
    And the bedspread was disguisting, I slept with just the sheet and left the bedspread on the floor (which was also worrying…)

    posted by Fiona on 1-11-2012 at 7:03 pm

  22. I recently had a bone marrow transplant, and so for a while afterwards I had NO antibodies and very few white blood cells. Upon leaving the safety of the leukemia ward for the first time in a month, I worked myself up to a pretty bad panic attack, thinking of all the things that could kill me on every surface. Nowadays I don’t have to be as cautious, but because I had to be for so long, I’m still pretty squeamish about things like public door handles, anything in restaurants, and faucets. oh, faucets. Why bother washing your hands if you’ve gotta touch the faucet again to turn it off?

    posted by Meg on 1-11-2012 at 11:21 pm

  23. This is not helping my OCD…

    posted by devon wedding photographer on 1-12-2012 at 7:40 am

  24. My husband stayed at a hotel in El Paso, TX and dropped something that rolled under the bed. We he got down to retrieve it he discoved the unseen part of the mattress was falling apart and covered with black mold. After that he quit working jobs that required travel.

    posted by Samantha on 1-12-2012 at 9:58 am

  25. As a clinical microbiologist, nothing in this article shocked me; I see worse things on a daily basis at my hospital.

    However, I thought MF had higher editing standards than this. I was appalled at the lack of standardization when reporting bacterium names. If you’re going to be wrong (and you really, really were), at least be consistently wrong. Don’t randomly capitalize and italicize things or add unnecessary hyphens.

    posted by Kristin on 1-12-2012 at 10:05 am

  26. @ Meg: In nursing school we learn to dry our hands after washing, throw away the paper towel, and get a new one to turn off the faucet. I graduated 13 years ago, and I still do that.

    The only thing on this list that really scared me is the bedspread. I’m sure I teethed on shopping cart handles in the early 70s and I’m still here qith quite a strong immune system — that is what our immune system is for — fighting all the above crap!

    posted by Julie on 1-12-2012 at 1:01 pm

  27. I don’t think I’ll leave my home ever again after reading this article!

    posted by Ken on 1-12-2012 at 3:50 pm

  28. …and yet – we are all STILL ALIVE!

    These facts are simply gross-out material – none of these things really cause us any harm. My shoes are stepping on all kinds of things all day long, yet I bring the filthy things inside my bedroom closet at night (only feet from my bed) and always wake up the next morning!

    posted by Leslie on 1-12-2012 at 8:56 pm

  29. The upright posts/poles and hanging handles on public transit. Yeeeesh.
    Observed this morning: Person coughs in hand. Person holds post. Another wipes nose then holds post.
    Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…

    posted by AMR on 1-12-2012 at 9:08 pm

  30. Hmmm definite food for thought on germs found on restaurant menus and condiment containers, hand wipes not just for the airplane!

    posted by Katie on 1-15-2012 at 5:07 pm

  31. A healthy hygiene practice is necessary, but fearing “germs” is not healthy. There are more “germs” on 1 square inch of your skin then people on the planet (6.5 billion in case you forgot the statistics.) So thinking we could win the war against germs is impossible as the organisms co-evolved with the human species. Consider natural hand sanitizers that don’t weaken your immune function by wiping out the healthy bacteria/germs that live in your mouth and gut.

    posted by Jivananda on 1-16-2012 at 6:39 am

  32. When I was a school bus driver I started out as a subsitute. Every day a different bus with a different “RING OF DEATH!” Okay, make that “steering wheel”. One time the wheel was downright goopy with a sticky oily slime of God-Knows-What, so I was glad to find, on the bus, a roll of towels (brown paper, restroom type). I drove with wadded-up paper between my hands and the wheel. Sort-of like paper gloves/pot holders deal. After that I carried ammonia in a spray bottle, and paper towels, in my car to clean the wheel and gearshift. When I got home I would be sure to change any clothes that touched school bus seat before sitting in a home seat.

    posted by Tdave on 1-17-2012 at 2:50 am

  33. Spell check: substitute not “subsitute”

    posted by Tdave on 1-17-2012 at 3:11 am

  34. My husband would be glad to know that his strict rule of bringing his own sheets, pillowcases and blankets to the hotel is validated… I make fun of him all the time for this…

    But as far as the others… Yes, there are some scary things out there, but as a biology teacher, I’m a firm believer in soap and water–wash your hands before you eat/use the bathroom/and preferably, before you touch your face… you should be fine! The immune system is stronger than we give it credit it for–unless of course, we cripple it by “protecting” it from our various germy serfaces!

    posted by Heather on 1-18-2012 at 1:11 pm

  35. whoops! *surfaces! LOL…

    posted by Heather on 1-18-2012 at 1:11 pm

  36. Thank you, Kristin.

    A proofreader would have been useful, particularly because it’s apparent the writer is not familiar with microbiology.

    Otherwise – nicely ghastly article!

    posted by Tiff on 1-19-2012 at 9:21 am

  37. I avoid people who have colds.

    Re gyms with bottle of disinfectant spray, which you put on paper towels and wipe down the equipment….when do you disinfect the spray bottles?

    Avoid touching eyes when out in public.

    Other than the above, I let the immune system do its job.

    posted by Peter Mathis on 1-23-2012 at 11:47 pm

  38. Do not forget the most used item today. Money. The germs on money is phoenomenal. Why do you think the government destroys so much all the time and constantly prints new money. You can find fecal matter, urine, vaginal fluids, food, millions of bacteria, saliva, transferred std’s (yes from strip clubs), etc. You name it the average dollar has to be the most disgusting thing with germs and bacteria.

    posted by James Romero on 1-31-2012 at 2:39 pm

  39. One more thing. Without these exposures to the bacteria we need to come in contact with, we would not have as healthy immune systems as we do now. I find that i have know someone who constantly disinfects things all the time before touching. They get more sick than i do. i maybe get sick once a year if that.

    posted by James Romero on 1-31-2012 at 2:43 pm

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