Dirty Cars Can Pose Serious Health Hazard

By David Williams

Motorists are at danger from a barrage of germs like Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus “each time they enter their car”, a new study claims. Bugs linked with food poisoning, vomiting and skin infections were all discovered inside a “random” car when it was subjected to a range of tests, says Halfords.

Scientists who analyzed swabs taken from the car used by a couple and their two children discovered the bacteria Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus inside, including on the steering wheel, gearstick and door handles. According to Halfords, Staphylococcal infections are contagious and can be transmitted from person to person. They can lead to skin infections such as impetigo and to food poisoning.

Bacillus cereus, a bacteria which forms spores that lie dormant until ideal conditions arise – such as warmth and a source of nutrition – can also be responsible for food poisoning. It can cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Tests were carried out on car door handles, the steering wheel, gearstick knob, radio control buttons, under the seats and on car mats where shopping is often placed. The resulting swabs were analysed at a laboratory.

Staphylococcus was detected on the door handles, steering wheel and under the seats. Bacillus cereus – probably brought into the vehicle on the shoes of car occupants and the paws of pets – was on the door handles, gearstick knob, car mats and under the seats.

In a survey of drivers conducted for Halfords, half of those questioned said they cleaned the inside of their car less than once a month, while the same proportion admitted they had spilled food or drink in their vehicles and one third said they’d had animals in their cars.

Dr Anthony Hilton, reader in microbiology at Aston University, said: “Although many strains of bacteria are harmless, some can cause unpleasant illnesses.

“People would be horrified at the prospect of eating from a toilet seat; however they ought to be aware that eating from a contaminated dashboard may represent the same health hazards.

“It is important, particularly now the weather is becoming warmer, for people to ensure they do not leave food debris in their cars as bacteria can thrive on even tiny crumbs. Also if you have animals in your car they can contribute to the presence of harmful micro-organisms.”

Dr Hilton, a member of the Society for Applied Microbiology, warned: “Those who eat in their car should treat it as an extension of their home and maintain the same levels of hygiene as they would in their dining room.”

Read the full article here

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The Germiest Places in America

Health.com -
Content by Health.com editors

We call them the dirty dozen. It’s our laundry list of the germiest places you’re likely to encounter during an average day. Sure, there are outbreaks of microbes and viruses across the country, but these buggers are where you live. In the office, at home, at the gym, on your vacation. “It’s enough to make even the least germophobic person a little worried,” says Dr. Germ, a.k.a. Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. After all, some of these germs lurk where you least expect them, he says: “People are more worried about the trash can than the kitchen sink, when it should be the other way around.” Dr. Germ and a panel of other experts helped us identify the dirty dozen and devise ways for you to keep clean. After all, the fight is in your hands. Literally. Eighty percent of infections are spread through hand contact. So wash up, people, and get ready to wage a bit of germ warfare of your own.

1. Your kitchen sink
“Kitchen sinks are dirtier than most bathrooms,” says Kelly Reynolds, PhD, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona. There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain. In fact, in a recent study, half of the top 10 germiest spots in the home were (gulp!) in the kitchen. That sponge you use to clean the counter? Crawling with bacteria, as are the sink’s basin and faucet handles. Reduce the risk: “Clean your kitchen counters and sink with an antibacterial product after preparing or rinsing food, especially raw fruits and vegetables, which carry lots of potential pathogens like salmonella, campylobacter, and E. coli,” says Philip Tierno, PhD, author of The Secret Life of Germs and director of clinical microbiology at New York University Medical Center. Sanitize sponges by running them through the dishwasher’s drying cycle. “That killed 99.9 percent of the bacteria on the sponges we used in a recent study—and we’d gotten them really good and contaminated first,” says Cheryl Mudd, a microbiologist with the Agricultural Research Service’s Food Safety Laboratory. As for the sink, clean it twice a week with a solution of one tablespoon of chlorine bleach and one quart of water. Scrub the basin, then pour the solution down the drain.

2. Airplane bathrooms
It’s not exactly a shock that there are a huge number of germs in most public bathrooms, but experts agree that those cramped and overused airplane loos (with only about one toilet for every 50 people) are the worst. “There are often traces of E. coli or fecal bacteria on the faucets and door handles, because it’s hard to wash your hands in those tiny sinks,” says Dr. Germ, a.k.a. Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. But here’s the worst news: The volcanic flush of the commode tends to spew particles into the air, coating the floor and walls with, well, whatever had been swirling around in there. Reduce the risk: Toilet seats are surprisingly clean, but use the paper cover when available. After using the toilet, wash and dry your hands thoroughly, and use a paper towel to handle the toilet seat, lid, tap, and doorknob. Put the lid down before you flush. If there’s no lid, turn your back to the toilet while flushing and beat a hasty retreat.

3. A Load of Wet Laundry
“Clean clothes” is a whopper of an oxymoron. “Anytime you transfer underwear from the washer to the dryer, you’re going to get E. coli on your hands,” Gerba says. Just one soiled undergarment can spread bacteria to the whole load and the machine. Reduce the risk: Run your washer and dryer at 150 degrees, and wash whites with bleach (not the color-safe type; it doesn’t pack the same punch), which kills 99.99 percent of bugs. Transfer wet laundry to the dryer quickly so germs don’t multiply, wash underwear separately (there’s about a gram of feces—a quarter the size of a small peanut—in every pair of dirty underwear), and dry for at least 45 minutes. Wash your hands after laundering, and run a cycle of bleach and water between loads to eliminate any lingering bugs.

4. Public drinking fountains
Drinking fountains are bound to be germy, but school fountains are the biggest offenders, with anywhere from 62,000 to 2.7 million bacteria per square inch on the spigot, says Robert Donofrio, PhD, director of microbiology for NSF International. Other school hot spots: cafeteria trays, sink handles, desk-tops, and computer keyboards. Yes, kids are germy creatures. And, thanks to their slapdash hygiene, 22 million school days are lost each year to colds alone. Reduce the risk: Send your child to school with plenty of her own beverages. Teach her to wash her hands, especially before and after lunch, going to the bathroom, or using the computer. Send hand sanitizer to every school teacher and give extras to your child. And when it’s your turn to squeeze into that little desk for Open House? Swab it off with an antibacterial wipe, Gerba says. If schools did that every night, they’d reduce the child-absenteeism rate by half. And, of course, don’t drink from the water fountain!

5. Shopping cart handles
Saliva. Bacteria. Fecal matter. Those are just a few of the choice substances Gerba found on shopping cart handles. Carts rank high on the yuck scale because they’re handled by dozens of people every day and you’re “putting your broccoli where some kid’s butt was,” says the professor of environmental microbiology. And, of course, raw food carries nasty pathogens. Reduce the risk: Many stores, aware of the ick factor, have a dispenser with disinfectant wipes near the carts. If yours doesn’t, bring your own and give the handle a quick swab; that’s been shown to kill nearly 100 percent of germs. Or carry along a cart cover, like the Grip-Guard or Healthy Handle, a dishwasher-safe polypropylene cover that fits over any size cart handle. At the meat counter, follow the lead of Elizabeth Scott, PhD, co-director of the Center for Hygiene and Health at Simmons College in Boston: “I always put raw meat in a plastic bag. If I get some juice on my hands, I ask the person behind the counter for a disinfecting wipe.”

6. ATM buttons
If you’re not careful, you might pick up more than quick cash from your local ATM. Those buttons have more gunk on them than most public-bathroom doorknobs. (The same goes for vending-machine buttons, bus armrests, and escalator handrails.) After testing 38 ATMs in downtown Taipei, Chinese researchers recently found that each key contained, on average 1,200 germs. “ATMs aren’t frequently cleaned, and they are regularly touched—a perfect combination for a lot of germs,” environmental microbologist Kelly Reynolds, PhD, says. Reduce the risk: “Carry an alcohol-based hand-sanitizer with you and rub it on your hands after a visit to the ATM,” Reynolds suggests. Also, be sure to do it after you handle money. “Paper money actually carries quite a few germs, too,” she says.

7. Your handbag
Your Marc Jacobs? Dirty? Yep. Think petri dish. When University of Arizona professor of environmental microbiology Charles Gerba, PhD, and his team tested women’s purses not long ago, they found that most had tens of thousands of bacteria on the bottom and a few were overrun with millions. Another study found bugs like pseudo-monas (which can cause eye infections), and skin-infection-causing staphylococcus bacteria, as well as salmonella and E. coli. Your makeup case is every bit as bad, as are your guy’s wallet and personal digital assistant. Reduce the risk: Instead of slinging your bag on the floor, hang it on a hook whenever you can—especially in public bathrooms—and keep your bag off the kitchen counter. Stick with leather or vinyl purses, which are typically cleaner than cloth (less-porous surfaces are more impervious to germs). And wipe your bag down every few days with a mild soap or disinfectant, then let it air dry. Brand name, alas, makes no difference.

8. Playgrounds
There’s just no way to put this delicately: Children tend to ooze bodily fluids and then spread them around. “When we sampled playgrounds, we were pretty aghast at what we found—blood, mucus, saliva, urine,” Kelly Reynolds, PhD, says. Pair those findings with the fact that children put their fingers in their mouths and noses more than the rest of us, and it’s easy to understand why Junior (and maybe his mom or dad) has the sniffles. Reduce the risk: Carry alcohol wipes or hand-sanitizing gel in your purse, and clean everybody’s hands a couple of times during a park visit, especially before snacking. Pick warm sunny days for outdoor play: “The sun’s ultraviolet light is actually a very effective disinfectant. Most bugs won’t survive long on surfaces that are hot and dry,” says Howard Backer, MD, MPH, an expert in communicable diseases in Richmond, California.

9. Mats and machines at health clubs
“I see a yoga mat, and I worry,” says Elizabeth Scott, PhD, who has found antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus on yoga mats and cardio and resistance machines. “At high schools, antibiotic-resistant-staph infections have been transmitted through wrestling mats. The same thing could happen at health clubs.” Reduce the risk: Wipe down machines with antibacterial wipes before working out. Bring your own yoga mat or cover a loaner with your towel. “Shower after a workout and soap up your skin to rinse off any bacteria you may have been exposed to,” Scott says. “Thorough washing gets rid of antibiotic-resistant staph.”

10. Your bathtub
Shocking, but true: The place you go to get clean is quite dirty. In a recent study, Elizabeth Scott, PhD, found staphylococcus bacteria, a common cause of serious skin infections, in 26 percent of the tubs she tested, as compared with just 6 percent of garbage cans. Tubs typically had more than 100,000 bacteria per square inch! “It makes sense when you think about it,” she says. “You’re washing germs and viruses off your body. The tub is a fairly moist environment, so bacteria can grow.” Reduce the risk: Once a week, apply a disinfecting cleaner to the tub. “You need to actually scrub, then you need to wash the germs down the drain with water and dry the tub with a clean towel. If you leave the tub wet, germs are more likely to survive,” Scott says. Pay special attention to soap scum—a surprisingly germ-friendly environment, author Phiilp Tierno, PhD, adds. If someone who uses the tub has a skin infection, scrub it afterward with a solution of two tablespoons bleach in one quart of water.

11. Your office phone
This is enough to make you dial 911: Office phones often have more than 25,000 germs per square inch, and your desk, computer keyboard, and mouse aren’t far behind. “Phones, including cell phones, can be pretty gross; they get coated with germs from your mouth and hands,” says Robert Donofrio, PhD. Although we’d like to think of ourselves as cleaner than guys, women’s offices have twice the number of bacteria (but men’s are slightly more likely to harbor antiobiotic-resistant staphylococcus). In fact, Gerba calls desks “bacteria cafeterias,” because of all the food particles he found there. Most common office areas—kitchens, copiers—are not as dirty as individual desks, although the microwave is pretty bad.

12. Hotel-room remote
What’s the first thing you do when you settle in at a hotel? You grab the remote control and switch on the TV—you, and the hundreds of other guests who’ve stayed there. How dirty is it? Owen Hendley, MD, a professor of pediatrics and infectious disease at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and his colleagues recently tested various surfaces for the cold virus after a group of sick people had stayed overnight. “We found the virus on the remote, door handles, light switches, pens, and faucet handles,” he says. Reduce the risk: Clean the remote control, phone, clock radio, door handles, and light switches with germicidal wipes. While you’re at it, throw on a pair of slippers and throw off the bedspread. “We’ve found urine and semen on both carpets and bedspreads.” They may not make you truly sick, but it certainly is enough to make you feel queasy.

The Germiest Places in America

Health.com -
Content by Health.com editors
We call them the dirty dozen. It’s our laundry list of the germiest places you’re likely to encounter during an average day. Sure, there are outbreaks of microbes and viruses across the country, but these buggers are where you live. In the office, at home, at the gym, on your vacation. “It’s enough to make even the least germophobic person a little worried,” says Dr. Germ, a.k.a. Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. After all, some of these germs lurk where you least expect them, he says: “People are more worried about the trash can than the kitchen sink, when it should be the other way around.”

Dr. Germ and a panel of other experts helped us identify the dirty dozen and devise ways for you to keep clean. After all, the fight is in your hands. Literally. Eighty percent of infections are spread through hand contact. So wash up, people, and get ready to wage a bit of germ warfare of your own.

Read the Entire Article Here!

Few Correctly Cover Coughs and Sneezes

Dirty Secrets Revealed

LiveScience.com -
By Bjorn Carey, LiveScience Staff Writer

American adults are liars, at least when it comes to washing their hands.

In a recent telephone survey, 91 percent of the subjects claimed they always washed their hands after using public restrooms. But, when researchers observed people leaving public restrooms, only 83 percent actually did so.

Only 75 percent of men washed their hands compared to 90 percent of women, the observations revealed.

The telephone survey also turned up several other results – some surprising, some not. While 83 percent said they washed their hands after using a home bathroom, 73 percent washed their hands after changing a diaper.

In contrast, low percentages of people wash their hands after petting a cat or dog (43 percent), after handling money (21 percent), after sneezing or coughing (32 percent).

“Only 24 percent of men and 39 percent of women say they always wash their hands after coughing or sneezing,” said Brian Sansoni of the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA). “We have to do a better job here in stopping the spread of the germs that make us sick.”

These results were released by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the SDA to highlight National Clean Hands Week, which runs from Sept. 18 through the 24.

“Although many Americans are beginning to recognize the importance of washing their hands, we still need to reach many others,” said Judy Daly, Secretary of the ASM. “Our message is clear: one of the most effective tools in preventing the spread of infection is literally at our fingertips.”

Read the Entire Article

Study Shows Risks of Kids Riding in Shopping Carts

FoodSafetyNews.com -
by Alexa Nemeth

In the June issue of the Journal of Food Protection, a study conducted in Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) sites identified an association between riding in a shopping cart next to raw meat or poultry products and infection caused by Salmonella or Campylobacter in infants younger than 1 year.

FoodNet is the principal foodborne disease component of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Emerging Infections Program, a collaborative project involving the CDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and 10 state health departments.

According to the study, Salmonella and Campylobacter are the most common causes of bacterial gastroenteritis in the United States, resulting in an estimated 1.4 and 2.4 million illnesses each year, respectively. Infants and children younger than 5 years are at increased risk, with reported rates 2 to 10 times higher than for persons 5 years or older.

Among infants, riding in a shopping cart next to packaged raw meat and poultry has been shown to be an important risk factor for Salmonella and Campylobacter infection.

Salmonella and Campylobacter have been detected on the outside of packages of meat and poultry at retail outlets which indicates that these contaminated surfaces could play a role in transmission.

They defined exposure as answering yes to one of a series of questions asking if packages of raw meat or poultry were near a child in a shopping cart, or if a child was in the cart basket at the same time as was raw meat or poultry.

“We compared children who were exposed to raw meat and poultry products with those not exposed by the following variables: location of the child in the shopping cart (i.e., only seat, only basket, both basket and seat, any basket [includes only basket and both basket and seat]) and sociodemographic characteristics (parent’s education level, household income, race or ethnicity),” reported the researchers.

Among 1,273 respondents, 767 (60 percent) reported that their children visited a grocery store in the past week and rode in shopping carts. Among these children, 103 (13 percent) were exposed to raw products. Children who rode in the baskets were more likely to be exposed than were those who rode only in the seats.

“Our study shows that children can be exposed to raw meat and poultry products while riding in shopping carts. Parents should separate children from raw products and place children in the seats rather than in the baskets of the cart. Retailer use of leak proof packaging, customer placement of product in a plastic bag and on the rack underneath the cart, use of hand sanitizers and wipes, and consumer education may also be helpful.”

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Dry Air Blamed For Flu Outbreaks

MSNBC.com -
By Emily Sohn

It’s one of the hallmarks of winter: The misery of being stuck in bed with the flu. Now, scientists are finally figuring out why the virus hits hardest in the wintertime and why some winters are worse than others.

Blame dry air.

Extremely low humidity levels in winter, according to new research, fuel influenza outbreaks. Particularly dry spells make the problem worse. The discovery might help scientists prepare for epidemics and for the rash of secondary illnesses, like pneumonia, that often slam people once they’re already down.

“It is the first step toward potentially forecasting the risk of influenza outbreaks,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an atmospheric scientist at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “By getting a handle on what’s going on with influenza, we are also getting a handle on the other diseases that really piggy back on influenza.”

To explain why flu and related illnesses strike far more often in the winter than at other times of year, theories have fallen into three categories. One idea is that people spend more time indoors in the winter and schools are in session, so there is more person-to-person contact.

Another theory is that, with less exposure to sunlight, people have lower levels of melatonin and vitamin D, weakening their immune systems and making them more likely to succumb to influenza viruses. Scientists have also hypothesized that temperature and humidity affect how long the virus can last after someone coughs or sneezes.

Previous research has shown that influenza viruses survive longer in air when temperatures are colder and relative humidity is lower. Relative humidity, which appears in many weather reports, describes how close conditions are to the point of forming fog or clouds.

But relative humidity isn’t the best measurement for studying flu outbreaks, Shaman said, because relative humidity varies with temperature. So, there is actually less moisture in the air on a rainy winter day in Seattle than there is on a sunny summer day in the same city.

He thought it would be more useful to look at absolute humidity, which measures exactly how much moisture is in the air, regardless of temperature.

On that scale, Shaman said, winters are usually twice as dry as summers in a place like San Diego and Arizona, four times drier in New York, and up to five times drier in a particularly cold state like Minnesota.

Along with colleagues, he analyzed 31 years of data from around the United States and used a computer model to show that influenza outbreaks were more likely to occur when absolute humidity levels were low. Like a sliding scale, progressively drier air led to progressively higher likelihood that an outbreak would occur, the researchers reported in the journal PLoS Biology. Temperature didn’t play much of a role.

“People had recognized that there was seasonality to this, but nobody has really come up with a unifying explanation,” said Gregory Poland, Director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minn. Humidity, he said, “is likely is part of that unifying explanation.”

Humidity is probably not the only explanation, however, and the weather forecast will probably never serve as a flu forecast. Even in dry conditions, the virus needs to be hanging around, and people need to come into contact to spread it. Still, any insight into what drives epidemics is a step toward saving lives.

When absolute humidity is low, for example, local hospitals could start stockpiling anti-viral medications and other supplies, and they could increase moisture levels in patient rooms.

Humidifying your home could help, too, but moist air alone is not the answer, Shaman said.

“The best defense against influenza remains vaccination. That can’t be stressed enough,” he said. “I would never suggest anyone forgo that to go out and buy a humidifier.”

The Spread of Superbugs

Mr. Dukes is a reminder that as long as we’re examining our health care system, we need to scrutinize more than insurance companies. We also need to curb the way modern agribusiness madly overuses antibiotics, leaving them ineffective for sick humans.

Antibacterial drugs were revolutionary when they were introduced in the United States in 1936, virtually eliminating diseases like tuberculosis here and making surgery and childbirth far safer. But now we’re seeing increasing numbers of superbugs that survive antibiotics. One of the best-known — MRSA, a kind of staph infection — kills about 18,000 Americans annually. That’s more than die of AIDS.

Mr. Dukes, 52, picked up a kind of bacteria called ESBL-producing E. coli. While it’s conceivable that he touched a contaminated surface, a likely scenario is that he ate tainted meat, said Dr. Brad Spellberg, an infectious-diseases specialist and the author of “Rising Plague,” a book about antibiotic resistance.

Vegetarians are also vulnerable to antibiotic resistance nurtured in hog barns. Microbes swap genes, so antibiotic resistance developed in pigs can jump to microbes that infect humans in hospitals, locker rooms, schools or homes.

Routine use of antibiotics to raise livestock is widely seen as a major reason for the rise of superbugs. But Congress and the Obama administration have refused to curb agriculture’s addiction to antibiotics, apparently because of the power of the agribusiness lobby.

The ESBL E. coli initially remained in Mr. Dukes’s colon, causing no particular damage. But then he suffered an inflammation that perforated his colon — and the bacteria escaped.

Mr. Dukes began suffering stomach pains and saw his doctor, who gave him Cipro, a strong antibiotic that had previously worked against the infection. This time, the pain grew worse. The next evening, he was in surgery to remove eight inches of his colon.

A culture attributed the infection partly to ESBL E. coli. Doctors inserted a tube to administer an intravenous antibiotic in an effort to save his life.

If ESBL E. coli is frightening, there are even more potent superbugs emerging, like Acinetobacter.

“We are seeing infections caused by Acinetobacter and special bacteria called KPC Klebsiella that are literally resistant to every antibiotic that is F.D.A. approved,” Dr. Spellberg said. “These are untreatable infections. This is the first time since 1936, the year that sulfa hit the market in the U.S., that we have had this problem.”

The Infectious Diseases Society of America, an organization of doctors and scientists, has been bellowing alarms. It fears that we could slip back to a world in which we’re defenseless against bacterial diseases.

There’s broad agreement that doctors themselves overprescribe antibiotics — but also that a big part of the problem is factory farms. They feed low doses of antibiotics to hogs, cattle and poultry to make them grow faster.

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that in the United States, 70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.

More antibiotics are fed to livestock in North Carolina alone than are given to humans in the entire United States, according to the peer-reviewed Medical Clinics of North America. It concluded that antibiotics in livestock feed were “a major component” in the rise of antibiotic resistance.

Legislation introduced by Louise Slaughter, a New Yorker who is the only microbiologist in the House of Representatives, would curb the routine use of antibiotics in farming. The bill has 104 co-sponsors, but agribusiness interests have blocked it in committee — and the Obama administration and the Senate have dodged the issue.

After weeks of receiving intravenous antibiotics, Mr. Dukes is now recovering at home in Lomita, Calif. He must use a colostomy bag, but he hopes to be patched up and ready to return to work next month. Still, he knows that the ESBL E. coli remains in his gut.

“As long as it’s contained in my colon, I’m a happy camper,” he said. “But if it gets out again, I’m in trouble.”

Dr. Martin J. Blaser, chairman of the department of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, and a former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, agrees that agricultural use of antibiotics produces cheaper meat. But he says the price may be an enormous toll in human health.

“You could have very lethal pandemics,” he said. “We’re brewing some perfect storms.”

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