You might want to wash your hands after the next time you take money out the cash machine. A new study shows that when bacteria harvested from both were compared, ATM keys were as dirty as the seat in a public bathroom.

The scientists swabbed the keys on a busy ATM, as well as the the seats in a public bathroom. Both contained pseudomonads and bacillus, bacterias which can cause illness and diarrhea.

The study was sponsored by BioCote, a company that makes an anti-bacterial coating that, among other things, can be used on ATM keys, and therefore would have a keen financial incentive interest in publicizing findings like these.

Cash machines ‘as dirty as toilets’ [The Telegraph]

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