We test every day items for bacteria with kids’ flannel found to have 1,100 types of potentially deadly E. coli
COULD your home, sweet home be the end of you?
Potentially harmful bacteria can be found lingering on everyday items, from washing-up sponges and chopping boards in the kitchen to flannels in the bathroom.
I decided to investigate – with a Sun on Sunday lab test on objects in my home.
A tea towel was found to have the most bacteria — numbering in the BILLIONS. That includes entero- bacteriaceae, a family of bacteria than can cause deadly infections.
Worryingly, my kids’ flannel was found to have 1,100 traces of the potentially deadly bacteria E. coli. I sent some of our most frequently handled items to a laboratory to discover the worst offenders.
Bournemouth’s Microtech Services tested for bacteria including salmonella, E. coli and staphylococcus aureus — all of which can cause illness. I’m a 40-year-old mum of three, so I was nervous to find out what nasties might be lurking in my family home in Kent.
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I’m never sure how well my kids wash their hands, hoped for nothing harmful that could make them ill.
Our study comes after Norwegian experts found washing-up sponges provide the perfect breeding ground for germs. They said washing-up brushes dry more quickly, meaning bacteria on them die faster.
Yet fewer than a third of UK homes use them. Not all bacteria are harmful but Norwegian scientists put salmonella and campylobacter bacteria — which can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, and fever — on to different surfaces.
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The salmonella lasted for seven days on two-thirds of sponges but died within three days on a brush left up to dry.
Campylobacter survived for a day on sponges but disappeared much faster from brushes. The report’s lead author Dr Trond Moretro said: “Perhaps British people may want to be a bit more like Norwegians and use brushes instead.”
Here microbiologist Melody Greenwood explains the bacteria counts from my home test, and I give my reaction.
Front door key (Bacteria - 220)
LYNSEY SAYS: I would have expected my door key to be dirtier than this, given that I’m always handling it and often drop it to the bottom of my handbag, which can also get quite dirty.
I can’t remember ever wiping or cleaning this key, so the lab findings came as quite a surprise.
MELODY SAYS: The count sounds bad but that’s actually pretty clean, considering that you handle this item quite a lot.
No nasties like E. coli were found here, either.
Kids’ flannel (Bacteria - 1.8billion)
LYNSEY SAYS: My kids wash their faces with this flannel so I was horrified to know it’s covered in bacteria including E. coli, which could make them poorly.
I regularly wash it at 60C but clearly that’s not hot enough to get rid of the bacteria. Yuk! I’ll throw this in the bin.
MELODY SAYS: E. coli is an indicator of faecal contamination, which was quite surprising to find, given that the flannel goes in the washing machine.
But if the temperature of the wash isn’t that high, it is unlikely to kill E. coli and this could contaminate the rest of a washing load.
Tea towel (Bacteria - 4.2billion)
LYNSEY SAYS: I regularly wash tea towels at 60C so I was hoping these would be quite clean – but no.
Enterobacteriaceae can cause urinary tract and respiratory infections so it’s horrible to think of these lurking on a tea towel that I use to dry plates, cups and cutlery. I’ll be washing more regularly at 90C from now on.
MELODY SAYS: Enterobacteriaceae are relatively sensitive to heat and disinfectant, so they are quite easily killed. They are very common, on everything from lettuce to skin, but proper washing should remove the problem.
Some of them can make you poorly.
Make-up bag (Bacteria - 19,000)
LYNSEY SAYS: The bag showed no signs of the enterobacteriaceae that were found on other items and, fortunately, no E. coli. I was quite surprised about the findings for this item that I never even wash and go in and out of all the time.
MELODY SAYS: We were quite surprised because there was no E. coli, no staphylococcus aureus and no enterobacteriaceae.
The total count was not too bad, considering you reach into this bag all the time.
It was surprisingly clean.
Wooden chopping board (Bacteria - 748million)
LYNSEY SAYS: That’s certainly a whole lot of bacteria! I always wash the chopping board after use, but clearly I’m not doing a very good job. I’ll try harder.
MELODY SAYS: The results for the chopping board were not very good at all and the number of bacteria we found was extremely high.
If it was properly sanitised we would expect it to be below ten per square centimetre.
Again, you would think the entero-bacteriaceae would have been washed away during cleaning, but they were still present.
Washing-up sponge (Bacteria - over 1million)
LYNSEY SAYS: I was relieved the lab found no E. coli or salmonella, as I wash dishes and a baby’s bottle with it. But there was staphylococcus, which can cause skin infections, and if it enters the bloodstream it could lead to sepsis, which is life-threatening.
This is a huge worry.
MELODY SAYS: It looked clean but we found more than a million organisms, which is quite normal. There was a colony of staphylo-coccus, which is worrying as it can cause infection, but we found no enterobacteriaceae so this sponge must have been rinsed out well.
Pillowcase (Bacteria - 22million)
LYNSEY SAYS: That’s a lot of bugs on one square centimetre of pillow.
But the lab said this was to be expected, considering that we sleep on it every night and harbour lots of bacteria on our skin. Nothing harmful was found.
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MELODY SAYS: We had to take a sample swab from each side of the pillow case.
The total does sound like a lot, but your body touches the pillow and skin can have anything from 10,000 to 100,000 bacteria per square centimetre. So it wasn’t too bad at all. It’s actually relatively clean.