Slime!!! In the Ice Machine!!!!!
Posted on 03/02/2006 10:35:01 AM PST by XR7
Seventh-Grader's Science Project Turns Up Some Disturbing Results
NEW YORK - Jasmine Roberts never expected her award-winning middle school science project to get so much attention. But the project produced some disturbing results: 70 percent of the time, ice from fast food restaurants was dirtier than toilet water.
The 12-year-old collected ice samples from five restaurants in South Florida -- from both self-serve machines inside the restaurant and from drive-thru windows. She then collected toilet water samples from the same restaurants and tested all of them for bacteria at the University of South Florida.
In several cases, the ice tested positive for E. coli bacteria, which comes from human waste and has been linked to several illness outbreaks across the country.
"These [bacteria] don't belong there," said Dr. David Katz, medical contributor to "Good Morning America." "It's not cause for panic, although it is alarming because what she found is nothing new. You're not more likely to get sick now. But she's done us a favor by sounding the alarm."
Both Roberts and Katz said that the ice is likely dirtier because machines aren't cleaned and people use unwashed hands to scoop ice. Toilet water is also surprisingly bacteria-free, because it comes from sanitized city water supplies.
Support from Big Brother
Roberts got interested in the project after reading a newspaper article about bacteria in airplane water and decided to do something similar. Plus, she said, all of her friends chew on ice, and it drives her crazy.
"I just picked the not-obvious choice," the seventh-grader said of her project.
Her 18-year-old brother, Justus, is also an award-winning science fair veteran who said he has encouraged his little sister's interest in science.
Justus said when Jasmine told him her idea for this project, "I gave her a high five, then said, 'You're a strange little kid.' But I supported her all the way."
The restaurants also have taken notice of Roberts' project. Two began new sanitary policies and have asked her to come back and do her tests again.
"First they appreciated the project," she said. "And one location even asked me to come back and test the temperature of their food."
Ick.
And I always thought asking for icewater with my burger was the healthier thing to do.
This will put a stop to that right quick.
I think i'm going to hurl...........
My dog is looking very smug as I read this...
l o l
Some of the things you expect to be clean get a far worser cleanliness regimen than some of the things you expect to be dirty.
Toilets are probably cleaned more often than restaurant pepper/salt shakers. Therefore one can expect the latter to be dirtier than the former.
Same with keyboards and telephones.
LMBO! I'm sure my cat will have a purr at my expense, too...
Very smart girl. This is going to be one of the classic school science projects, like the one decades ago where the student built accelerometers to measure the maximum g-force a package was subjected to, and mailed them in ordinary packages and packages labeled "fragile", "special handling" etc. All of the accelerometers recorded very high forces, except for the ones the post office broke.
"Fecal Frosties"..
Problem is, most kids that work in fast-food restaurants don't even wash their hands after they use the toilet.
A study done in a public men's restroom at JFK Airport in NYC...this was OBSERVED behavior...showed that 41% of men who used the restroom didn't wash afterwards. An almost equal number of women were the same.
No wonder this bright young lady found those germs!
All together now...
Ewww.
So basically she is testing tap water from the toilet and tap water with human had contamination from ice handling. Results not at all surprising.
Butt Blizzards
"Yes, I'll have 2 E Coli burgers, a side order of raw sewage, and a diet swamp water."
It depends on how you define "clean." Toilet water still have chemicals and deposits in them, including the agents from cleaning solutions.
Salt and pepper shakers basically have your obligatory bacteria on them.
I wish there were testing standards, I do like ice, but I don't want to tote it from home all the time.
That's true. Maybe I should have stated 'organically inactive'.
Slime!!! In the Ice Machine!!!!!
And those who wash their hands thoroughly still have to grab that door handle to exit the restroom.
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