It turns out that an elevator button harbours about 35 times as many bacteria as a typical public toilet seat.
Researchers from the University of Arizona conducted a bacteriological analysis of the surface of buttons in the elevators of hotels, restaurants, banks, offices and airports. It turned out that an average of 313 colony-forming units (CFU) of bacteria is on every square centimetre of lift button.
The equivalent surface area of a typical toilet seat had only eight CFU. The analysis also revealed that germs on elevator buttons often include stomach bugs such as E.coli,.
According to the researcher Dr. Nicholas Moon, in buildings with large numbers of visitors, a lift button can be touched by dozens of people every hour and thereby leading to a constant exchange of a variety of microorganisms. Even if the buttons are cleaned regularly, the potential for the buildup of bacteria is extremely high.
Previous studies on similar topics show that the computer keyboard is four times dirtier than toilet seats, and mobile phones are 18 times dirtier than the handle bins in public toilets.
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