Bacterial Contamination of Hand-Held Games’ Controllers Worse Than a Toilet Seat

A new study listing the household items that are the most contaminated has found that the hand-held games controllers have five times more bacteria than a toilet seat. The study was conducted by researchers at Domestos and UNICEF who swabbed some of the everyday items found in most houses. They found that the hand-held controllers contained an average of 7,863 germs per 100 square centimeters compared to a toilet seat that contained around 1,600 germs over the same area.

Trampoline was found to be the dirtiest household item with more than 640,000 germs in every 100 square centimeters while chair and sofa arms contained 19,200 germs over the same area and the fridge handle was found to harbor over 7,474 bacteria over the same measure.

“Hand washing is probably the most cost-effective and simple way to reduce disease whether in the UK or in the rest of the world. Literally, our safety, and that of others, is in our hands. By making sure we have clean hands, we prevent passing our germs on to others, and we can make sure that we don't get sick from infections left behind by other people”, hygiene expert Dr Lisa Ackerley said.

Source-Medindia