When you think of places where germs would be you come up with places like a bathroom or a pay phone. Most people tend not to think about another place where just as many germs reside; the ATM machine. Have you ever seen anybody wipe it down? Have you ever wiped before you use it? Just think about that for a little while.
A study was recently done in London where swabs from various ATMs and public toilets were examined under a microscope and their results were a little surprising. They found that bacteria that can cause diarrhea and other sicknesses were found in equal amounts at each location.
There is speculation though that BioCote (the company who did the research and is also an antibacterial coating manufacturer) squed the numbers but I could easily see this as being true. Even the money we take out of the ATM is probably littered with bacteria. Everybody must push the buttons so naturally anything that is on those fingers gets spread around. In the past few years grocery stores have put antibacterial wipes near the carts so people can clean those and I would imagine we’ll start to see something of the same near ATMs.
Just something to keep in mind the next time you step up to that machine and start pushing buttons that that guy in front of you just pressed after sneezing and coughing.
