A 12-year-old compared bacteria levels in ice samples from five
restaurants in South Florida with toilet water samples from the same
restaurants.
The toilet water was cleaner. From ABC News:
Jasmine Roberts never expected her award-winning middle school science
project to get so much attention. But the project produced some
disturbing results: 70 percent of the time, ice from fast food
restaurants was dirtier than toilet water.
Disturbing enough, but quite a number of studies have found your toilet to be cleaner than your kitchen counters or, for that matter, your office telephone and computer keyboard. After all, when’s the last time you cleaned your phone or keyboard? And most of us wash our kitchen counters down with a wet sponge or wash cloth, not Clorox bleach.
Maybe dogs aren’t so stupid after all
Maybe dogs are a little smarter than we give them credit for.
We’ve often speculated that my parents dogs like the toilet water better than the water in their water bowl because the toilet water is cooler. Maybe they already did their own studies and
This is, of course, assuming the twelve year old’s test was accurate, the procedures were reliable and the samples were not accidentally or deliberately switched to make for a more interesting project result. Not accusing the 12 year old of lying, but scientists should conduct the same tests. Of course, that gives the restaurants time to clean up their water.
So Monk is right…
This gives me second thoughts about eating out, or at least ice in my drink when I do. It also reminds me of a fear I used to have about letting other people use my phone at the office. I worked in a crowded building with a large shared office space divided into cubicles, and caught whatever bug was going around, until I got a private office. By then I’d become a little buggy about germs. One day my boss used my phone, and I needed to use it right afterward, while she was still there. I hesitated and wondered whether she’d be offended if I wiped it. I decided not to. Better to be on good terms with the boss.
As your cousin, I am glad that you finally have accepted the dangers of ice 🙂 I am the constant “diet coke, no ice with a slice of lemon” orderer at restaraunts… I wish I could say that it is because of a fear of bacteria, it would be more interesting than the truth – sensitive teeth and being raised by my father who always insisted that ice was “how they got ya” at the movies….
Ice is an evil force that must be destroyed at all costs. Seriously, who likes cold soda? Give me lukewarm any day.
At least most of the fast food restaurants I frequent have pretty clean restrooms. Now, if they said the ice at gas station mini-marts was dirtier than the toilet water…*shudder*
If the ice has bacteria, wouldn’t it be in the drink, too. Most restaurants use syrup and water for sodas and it would have the same water as the ice machines. If that’s the case, only hot drinks would be safe.