ATMs Carry Various Types of Microbes

Microbes are everywhere, but apparently, ATMs carry the stranger ones. The ATMs which you probably use on a daily basis are also frequently used by hundreds of other people. Thus, some germs and diseases held on its keypads is terrifying. Specialists have identified that these machines contain microbes from pastry products, mollusks, chicken or even bony fish.

• The keypads of ATMs are swarming with different types of strange bacteria.
• Specialists have proved that there are also traces of food from users’ hands.

According to a new study, these only represent a small amount of the bacteria encountered on the surface if ATMs from Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. The results of the research were published in the mSphere magazine of the American Society for Microbiology. Many experts have categorized this study as being one of the most subversive projects in the last few years.

The study aimed to characterize and understand the great diversity of microbes living outside and in which way could they affect people’s state of health. In the study which was released last year, scientists have explained how every individual is surrounded by a cloud of microbes which follow you everywhere, becoming part of your identity just like a fingerprint is.

The new study regarding the bacteria on ATMs was conducted by Jane M. Carlton who is a biologist. In June and July 2014, she together with her team organized so well that they managed to take samples from the keypads of 66 different ATMs from the neighborhoods of New York City. They have used DNA sequencing to determine the components of each and every sample.

The team of researchers has claimed that the results were reflecting the common types of microbes which are common in those hundreds of people who probably regularly used the ATMs. The conclusion was that most ATMs carry the proof of several foods everyone may have eaten that day.

ATMs located in Central Harlem South showed evidence of chicken. The keypads contained microbes and fat coming from chicken. In Chinatown and Flushing, some Asian neighborhoods, have proved to carry germs from mollusks and bony fish. In Manhattan and other areas, researchers have identified Xeromyces bisporus.

This is a foodborne mixture which indicated the presence of spoiled pastry products. This particular microbe was confined from licorice and placed in the same category as bacteria coming from high-sugar foods. In this project, all the bacteria identified by Carlton and her team were characterized as a trace of environmental sources and human behavior.

Image source: wikipedia