Elevator buttons hotbed of germs--study

A typical lift button could be thriving with harmful germs, viruses, and bacteria, claims an intriguing new study.

According to researchers, though toilet seats are considered filthy because they are crawling with millions of disease causing germs, the innocuous lift button touched by many people every day harbors nearly forty times more bacteria.

Details of the study
Researchers from the University of Arizona carried out a study on behalf of Mircoban Europe, which manufactures antibacterial protection products.

Public spots like restaurants, offices, hotels, and airport were selected.

For the purpose of the study, the lift buttons were swabbed with Spongesicle containing 10ml of neutralizing buffer.

The estimated surface swabbed on each button was 7.06 square centimeters. Agar plates were incubated for five days at 30 degrees centigrade and bacteria colonies were then counted.

Revelations of the study
The investigators found only eight “colony forming units” on every square centimeter of the public toilet seat.

However, an alarming 313 units of bacteria were found on an equivalent surface area of the elevator button.

According to the researchers, the lift buttons could be active carriers of the common bacteria E-coli, Staph-aureus and MRSA.

A separate study that had compared the toilet seat with a typical office desk and computer key boards found that the former carried nearly 400 times more bacteria while the latter had four times more germs.

Experts theorize that virus can accumulate and multiply on things used everyday.

Frequently touched areas like lift buttons are easy prey and become the hotbed of crawling harmful germs and bacteria.

Lead author of the study, Dr Nicholas Moon stated, “In a busy building, a lift button can be touched by dozens of people who will have come into contact with all kinds of bacteria every hour.

"Even if the buttons are cleaned regularly, the potential for the build up of bacteria is high.

"It is easy to see that in some environments, especially airports and hotels where there are thousands of people from different places regularly touching lift buttons, there could be a major potential point for cross contamination and the spread of disease.”

Good hygiene recommended
The way to combat the war against germs is to adopt healthy and clean measures. Simple washing works wonders as do hand sanitizers in a public place.

But Professor Hugh Pennington, a leading microbiologist in Britain stated, "Just because there are bacteria on a lift button it doesn't mean they are harmful to your health."

"The best way to protect yourself is to wash your hands before you eat or handle food."