The filling nozzles at gas stations are far dirtier than the toilet seat. Difficult to do worse: they are real nest of bacteria, says a Canadian study. But the steering wheel, is also a problem.
17,500 times more bacteria on a service station filling nozzle than on the bezel of your toilet! It is a Canadian start-up that has just done this very serious study to arrive at this perfectly scientific result: gasoline or diesel filling nozzles, handled by hundreds of motorists every day, have been analyzed.
Colonies of bacteria
Let’s be precise: the gasoline pump guns contain 12,980,425 bacteria colonies (COB) per square centimeter, and the buttons to select your fuel or type your code reach 16,884,269 COB per square centimeter! In comparison, the toilet seat in an individual dwelling has an average of 7,154 COB per square centimeter.
You would say that a banknote, also handled by thousands of hands, must be Extremely dirty? Not so! It has only 33 colonies of bacteria per square centimeter. The study found that 71% of petrol pumps are “heavily contaminated” by bacteria that cause disease, some of which can be severe.
At the top are cutaneous infections and pneumonia. Also Bad news for the users of electric cars: the charging stations are reached by the same invisible dirt, but real: on average, 328 405 bacterial colonies were found per square centimeter.
The solution ? Use plastic gloves or paper to grasp the pump charger or gun; Or wash your hands immediately after using antibacterial soap.
The steering wheel too!
The subject in any case fascinates scientists. Five years ago, English researchers pointed to the dirtiness of the ruffles. Who had received the palm (!) Of the object of daily life which has the most bacteria. There, the researchers compared it, not to the toilet seat, but to the … basin! Without a call: your steering wheel is nine times more dirty than your bowl. And it’s worse with leather than with plastic ruffles.
Consequence: If you scratch your nose, or eat at the wheel, you ingest thousands of germs that are not really your friends. It hurts !
