A seventh grader from Tampa recently won her school science fair with an experiment that compared levels of bacteria
in the toilets and ice machines of five different fast food restaurants. According to 12-year-old Jasmine Roberts, the
toilets contained less bacteria 70 percent of the time. For the toilet samples, Roberts flushed each toilet and then
scooped up some water with a sterile beaker. For the ice, she took samples from machines inside the restaurants as well
as from ice ordered at each drive-through window. The samples were tested at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center where Roberts
volunteers. The video that accompanies the story has footage of a graph comparing the bacteria in toilets versus ice.
Some of the differences are vast. Unfortunately, Roberts doesn't disclose the names of the restaurants.Fast food toilets cleaner than ice machines
A seventh grader from Tampa recently won her school science fair with an experiment that compared levels of bacteria
in the toilets and ice machines of five different fast food restaurants. According to 12-year-old Jasmine Roberts, the
toilets contained less bacteria 70 percent of the time. For the toilet samples, Roberts flushed each toilet and then
scooped up some water with a sterile beaker. For the ice, she took samples from machines inside the restaurants as well
as from ice ordered at each drive-through window. The samples were tested at Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center where Roberts
volunteers. The video that accompanies the story has footage of a graph comparing the bacteria in toilets versus ice.
Some of the differences are vast. Unfortunately, Roberts doesn't disclose the names of the restaurants.Comments [86]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
1I really don't mean this in a snarky manner, but I'm sure it will come across that way. Is anybody still surprised by news like this? Hasn't public knowledge finally reached the point where most people understand that there are huge amounts of bacteria everywhere, and using a raw bacteria count independent of the nature of said critters isn't really much of a measure of what is "healthy" and what isn't? Bleu cheese is chock full of bacteria, but we willingly stuff that in our faces. Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt that ice dispensers are, generally speaking, probably in need of a good cleaning, but somehow I doubt this is a health epidemic in the making. If memory serves, with the constant flushing and washing with bleach, toilets are frequently among the cleanest surfaces in your entire house. Why should it be any different in a fast food restaurant? Point being, while this is nice work for a seventh grade science project, the conclusion it should be reaching is that toilet bowls are much, much cleaner than people think. For media outlets to then spin it as "ice machines are a public menace", if that is the conclusion, is sensationalistic, misleading and thus far unsupported.
2Actually, this is not that surprising. Toilets are cleaned frequently and often have those time-release cleaners in the tank (if there is one). Ice and soda machines may be cleaned frequently, but proabably not with a bleach/bacteriocidal cleaner. The real question here is, does this ice machine meet local health laws? If so, nothing to see here, move along.
3I have yet to see the methodology published. That makes the findings suspect.
Im curious if the ice has more bacteria, or the cold environment kills competing bacteria allowing a cold-resistant strain to grow without competition when the sample is placed in a petri dish.
4"I have yet to see the methodology published. That makes the findings suspect. "
whoa whoa whoa...hold on there. you do realize that the "results" of this "study" were from a seventh grader doing a science fair project, right? come on, it's not like this is a groundbreaking study...it was a SCIENCE project.
5As has been mentioned elsewhere, we have no idea if the water in the toilets tested contained disinfectants. Without knowing that, the results are completely useless.
The media loves a "there's something icky in what you're eating" story, so they're slanting the reporting in a way that implies that the results indicate the toilet water is more drinkable than the ice-machine water.
But if the toilet water is toxic, this is an utterly wrong conclusion.
62-21-2006 @ 9:56AM
Ron Woodring said...
It appears the Health Dept isn't doing their jobs and this article may wake them up a little bit!! all Health Depts should check ice and beverage machines as part of weekly inspections What do we pay these Public Servants for ??
Ron
82-21-2006 @ 10:11AM
Kevin Schaffer said...
I was in the food industry for almost 20 years and this young girls project results do not surprise me in the least. I am glad to see that some of the restaurants have invited her back to test the food and ice but, maybe she should be testing the soda out of the soda dispensers on her next visit. It is amazing how much mold grows in those dispensers. As for the other restaurants shame on you for not wanting this girl to come back.
10I just wanted to say that i believe we all are missing the point here. do you realize that if you do not clean your ice bins and ice machines you will get bacteria. i mean some of you are dismissing a seventh grade project, without realizing that not every restaurant or restaurants are not following health codes. I think that is what the media is trying to show us.
11Relax people, stop over reacting. Like the first person said, this bacteria lives around us in just about everything we do. So, to find it in a place where people work and breath is not some major discovery...merely observing the obvious.
In fact, the Discovery channel MythBuster did a quite extensive experiment on this very subject, as related to toothbrushes. When all was said and done, all toothbrushes were contaminated...even there control group...which was stored in another room.
So, do you really think you can escape E. Coli bacteria. Our best bet is to not help it along, but you can't stop it...so relax, the world is not over yet.
12With all the negative comments so far on this site I would suspect either;
1. The negative commentators work in the food industry.
2. They eat at fast food restaurants.
Neither would apply to me, so I say "good job" to the little girl who exposed this threat to health. Of course it comes as absolutely no surprise. All one has to do is look at the quality of the workers in fast food joints and decuce what the qualty of the environment will be like.
132-21-2006 @ 10:29AM
Floyd Stamps said...
It was an excellent 7th grade science project. Good idea! It does not reach the level of a doctoral dissertation, but then , it wasn't intended to. Take the results for what they are - intersting and maybe affirming of some of the suspicions we already had. I've done and judged middle school science fair projects, and I say "Way to go, Jasmine!"
15Sounds like a good study with results which would lead health departs to do further study. I was a middle school teacher at one tme and for a student to come up with this project and to get the results that she did is quite astonishing. I hope that one day she becomes a researcher for a major company. Maybe she'll come up with even a better research idea. Winning stars for her!!
16Sounds like a good study with results which would lead health departs to do further study. I was a middle school teacher at one tme and for a student to come up with this project and to get the results that she did is quite astonishing. I hope that one day she becomes a researcher for a major company. Maybe she'll come up with even a better research idea. Winning stars for her!!
18As was said before, we are talking about a 7th grade science project. I remember doing the same type of project at around the same age. Everyone in the class actually swabbed/collected samples from different surfaces, etc. and placed them in petri dishes to see what would grow. Guess what, every dish had bacteria. Sure some had more, but every one had bacteria growing in it. The media loves to hype things up so that we read thier paper/website, whatever. Just like when they exaggerated the shark attack menace a few years back.
202-21-2006 @ 10:43AM
Edward Tomlin said...
It doesn't suprise me at all, the government has been poisoning us for years. Hormones in our meats, pestacides,in my town they sent out a letter stating the there is the presence of a chemical in out water and long term exposure may cause cancer, but is unlikely to do so, just don't drink it. What? is it dangerous or not? Over the past 50 years, males sperm count have fallen by %50-due to pestacides in our food. Was there a such thing as a spermbank in the 60's, no, there was no need for them. Now there is one in every town. Hormones used in milk production and given to live stock for growth purposes are making the U.S. the fatest country in the world. I could go on, but cut it cut it short here.
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