Touchscreens In Cars Turned Out To Be Dirtier Than Toilets

The British portal Compare the Market, dedicated, among other things, to insurance issues, has published a list of the dirtiest places in the car. Studies have shown that a multimedia system's touchscreen in some cars can have up to three times more bacteria than an office toilet.

• The study examined the interiors of ten cars of different classes and purposes - from family cars and premium models to work vans. Samples were collected from gear knobs, turn signal switches, steering wheels, driver's seat belts and seats, interior door handles, windshields, audio control buttons or touchscreen displays, and cabin mirror housings. A swab was also taken from the office toilet seat to compare the results.
• Determination of the number of bacteria was carried out using special swabs and computing equipment to identify relative light units (RLU). The RLU was then compared with the amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the samples. ATP is a source of energy in living organisms, by the content of which on surfaces one can judge about the relative purity.

• All the cars tested had extremely dirty steering wheels, but the audio controls contained 371 percent more bacteria than the toilet. It also turned out that the interior of a family car can be twice as dirty as the interior of a working van.