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The water from the tap is a source of germs

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
 
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02 February 2016, 09:00

Almost every person is sure that the most dirty place in his house is a toilet, but Californian researchers made an unexpected discovery - as it turned out, ordinary tap water spreads several times more harmful bacteria in the air, compared to other sources, including a toilet bowl.

Bacteria freely move through the air in the house, accumulate on different objects, surfaces and can get inside the human body during breathing or with dirty hands. To penetrate into the house microorganisms can in various ways - on clothes and footwear of the person, through an open window, with pets, etc. The discovery made by scientists extremely surprised them - as it turned out, the main distributor of pathogenic flora in the house is tap water. During the opening of the crane in the air rises a huge number of bacteria, more than from other surfaces, including. And during flushing the toilet.

According to the researchers themselves, perhaps this is due to the fact that microorganisms have a better penetrating power from water to air.

This study was conducted by the scientists to find out the bacterial component of residential houses, since it is at home that a person spends most of his free time. At the University of California, specialists selected about 30 homes, of which samples were taken from different surfaces, objects, and pets. Scientists studied bacteria inhabiting toilets, shower caps, bathtubs, rugs, floors, kitchen, windows, clothes, animal wool. Also scientists have selected images from the skin of people themselves living in a particular house.

The main question that interested specialists was to find out from which surfaces or objects the maximum number of bacteria enters the air and the result, as already mentioned, puzzled the experts. As studies have shown, most microorganisms live on carpets and floors, while regular airing contributed to an increase in the number of harmful bacteria on these surfaces.

By the way about microbes it is worth noting that smart phones have become an integral part of almost everyone's life, but few people think about how many bacteria live on its gadget.

In Britain, a team of specialists decided to find out the answer to this question, and it turned out that the surface of smartphones inhabits more microbes than the button on the toilet tank.

The scientists determined the number of microbes on the smartphone as follows: the gadget, which was used as much as possible, was placed in a special nutrient solution that activated the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. As a result, after a few days, the number of pathogens on the smartphone increased significantly.

Further studies have shown that there are more bacteria on the smartphone than on the toilet bowl of a male toilet, while the level of contamination of the phone was exceeded 10 times!

Experts recommend that all owners of gadgets better monitor the purity of their devices, especially for children's phones, otherwise, it can become dangerous to health, since few will think that the spread of infection can become a phone. According to experts, the use of special disinfectants every 5-7 days will be sufficient to protect yourself and your child from danger.

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