Is there nothing safe in this world anymore? The refillable soap dispenser to wash hands, a hallmark of restroom and kitchen sinks everywhere, our defense against the bacteria we may contract from handling food or, um, yeah, is actually a cesspool of dangerous bacteria that can get you sick.
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That's the conclusion of a study that just appeared in the May issue of Applied and Environmental Biology. Titled, “Bacterial Hand Contamination and Transfer after Use of Contaminated Bulk-Soap-Refillable Dispensers,” researchers determined, “Bulk-soap-refillable dispensers are prone to extrinsic bacterial contamination, and recent studies demonstrated that approximately one in four dispensers in public restrooms are contaminated.” They put their thesis to rigid scientific query, finding that bacteria easily enter such dispensers and thrive, just waiting for you to squirt some soap on your hands as you fiendishly scrub, foolishly think you're making yourself anti-septic. Sucker!
The scientists concluded that their results “demonstrate that washing with contaminated soap from bulk-soap-refillable dispensers can increase the number of opportunistic pathogens on the hands and may play a role in the transmission of bacteria in public settings.” Thank God I've always washed with scalding water…
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