A kid in New York City dared to lick an entire handrail at the entrance of the subway for a dollar — and presumably all the benefits of YouTube stardom.
Gerba has examined levels of germs in public places such as bus seats, bus handrails, indoor handrails and toilet seats.
He found that about 50 different microorganisms live on a toilet seat while a handrail provides refuge for hundreds of thousands of germs. He says Americans are terrified of butt-borne diseases, explaining why toilet seats are so clean.
Most people wipe off toilet seats or use seat covers, but we give little thought to the condition of railings. Gerba says, “We’ve studied the microbiology on public buses. The handrail is fairly bad.”
Gerba found e-coli (a bacterium often responsible for food poisoning); MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a staph infection that’s resistant to most first-line antibiotics); and fecal matter on handrails.
Fecal matter is on 50 percent of all handrails (people, it’s time to seriously wash your hands after using the bathroom). Handrails often harbor flu, staph bacteria, and respiratory and cold viruses, as well.
Previous research in England found that people are more likely to get a cold from handrails than any other public surfaces. Gerba reminds, “you don’t know if the last guy washed his hands after using the toilet.” He recommends that public transportation riders apply hand sanitizer after arriving at their destination.
Even though the rail licker exposed himself to as many as 300,000 microbes, he probably won’t get sick. Mary Jo Kasten, an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, says, “I think the likelihood that he will get ill is very low.
We all have bacteria in our mouth that are normal that will provide us with protection. If [the railing] has fecal matter on it, maybe [he] could get hepatitis A or another infection.” As disgusting as it looks, Kasten says licking a railing isn’t the best way to transmit infectious diseases.
She explains, “Licking an inanimate object is not a way that I think of people getting infected. He’s more likely to transmit a virus if he actually kissed someone.”
Gerba says that no amount of money would entice him to lick a handrail (he’s not interested in licking toilet seats either, despite knowing they’re cleaner). He jokes that he’d have to drink a lot to ever lick a handrail.
Content contributed by staff member, reported from New York, USA, sourced by ap.org
