IS YOUR CAR AS DIRTY AS A TOILET SEAT? Families driving into trouble By Ian Dow THE average family car is crawling with more germs than a toilet seat, tests have shown. Samples taken from a handful of vehicles revealed up to 21 billion bacteria found within tiny areas of the interior. The research by Auto Express took swabs from the footwell, armrests, air vents and other parts of five cars used by ordinary motorists for day-to-day driving. The cars ranged in tidiness from those with old crisp packets and drinks tins lying around to those used to ferry pets, where dogs routinely slept on the back seat. But even the cars which looked clean inside still hid billions of germs in crumbs of old food dropped by children, dog hairs down the back of seats or coffee stains round the cup holder. Most of the owners admitted they rarely valeted their cars. The samples were examined by clinical scientist Dr Derren Ready, the grime expert in the TV series Too Posh To Wash. In one sample, the specialist from the Microbiology Unit at London's Eastman Dental Hospital found 21 billion bacteria, more than 'a very dirty toilet seat'. The five cars included a Vauxhall Zafira belonging to a father of three, a Land Rover Defender used to transport bales of hay and a retired vicar's Daewoo Lanos. The other two were a Peugeot 306 owned by a building site engineer and the Nissan Micra of a sports co-ordinator. The family cars had more dead skin among the bacteria as passengers rub against each other to shed the skin, and the car with kids was fully packed. Those with children were more likely to have the odd mouldy sweet or crisp languishing in the passenger compartment attracting potentially unhealthy bugs. The three cars belonging to dog owners all had traces of potentially lethal e coli. The Micra had the cleanest front footwell but the opening to the tailgate was the dirtiest sample of all, recording 21 billion bacteria in just a few inches. This was where her pet dog got in and out of the back of the car. The Zafira, used by Damian O'Neil to ferry his three young sons around, harboured eight billion bacteria in the front footwell. He has now banned the children from eating in the car and has stopped smoking in it. Dr Ready said: 'You need to give bacteria food or water for them to grow. 'Anything that increases dryness in the cabin will decrease bacteria counts dramatically. 'Some strains of e coli cause food poisoning but it's important because it indicates the presence of faecal matter, which can contain worse bacteria, like salmonella.' A fungus found in the Defender was down to the hay but some fungi and yeasts can cause lung infections, said Dr Ready. The worst areas of the cars, in general, were the driver's footwell which is also the most used part of a vehicle. Air vents were the cleanest areas. Spilling drinks creates further problems - the drink holder of the Land Rover Defender, for instance, had 430 million bacteria around stains from spilled liquids. Samples were tested in lab conditions where they were incubated and allowed to cultivate so bug colonies could be identified and bacteria counted. Dr Ready said: 'Even if we deliberately try to grow bacteria in the lab, we might not get results as good as this.' #Full investigation in Auto Express on sale now
430 million bacteria from just spilled drinks is amazing... I'm surprised with the amount and hazardous factor of the bacteria, although I shouldn't be since food/skin/hair things keep getting trapped between the seat cushions and whatnot... time to get out that vacuum
yeh good thing we dont eat off our car seats or lick em but then if you become this worried about everything like this, you would live in a bubble
^Haha! But it's not really surprising these results, other researchers have done similar germ tests on other places (like keybords, bureaudesks, toilets etc) and it's often the toilet at home is much cleaner than other places in or outside the house.
lol exactly no one does, so even if cars seats harbour so much bacteria, its not something that should be that much of a concern there are bigger problems in the world
toilets dont have that many germs, i did a lab in high school where i swabbed some of the school bathrooms and then attempted to grow bacterial colonies on Agar. As it turned out the toilets have less bacteria then the water fountains do. was eye opening lol
im suprised since it was a public school WC, which in my experience are some of the nastiest toilets on the face of the earth
