According to researchers, even 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 harbours nearly 40 times more bacteria.
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 neutralising buffer. The estimated surface swabbed on each button was 7.06sqcm. Agar plates were incubated for five days at 30°C and bacteria colonies were then counted.
The investigators found only eight “colony forming units” on every square centimetre of the public toilet seat. However, an alarming 313 units of bacteria were found on an equivalent surface area of the elevator button.