Toilet Water cleaner than Fast-Food Ice dispenser?

[SUBMAN1]

This should gross a couple people out:

-S

Student finds toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants

Byave Balut

New Tampa, Florida - 12-year-old Jasmine Roberts is a seventh-grade student at Benito Middle School in New Tampa.

When it came time for her to choose a science project, she wondered about the ice in fast food restaurants.

Jasmine Roberts, 7th-grade student:
"My hypothesis was that the fast food restaurants’ ice would contain more bacteria that the fast food restaurants’ toilet water."

So Roberts set out to test her hypothesis, selecting five fast food restaurants, within a ten-mile radius of the University of South Florida.

Roberts says at each restaurant she flushed the toilet once, the used sterile gloves to gather samples.

Jasmine Roberts:
"Using the sterile beaker I scooped up some water and closed the lid."

Roberts also collected ice from soda fountains inside the five fast food restaurants. She also asked for cups of ice at the same restaurant's drive thru windows.

She tested the samples at a lab at the Moffitt Cancer Center where she volunteers with a USF professor. Roberts says the results did not surprise her.

Jasmine Roberts:
"I found that 70-percent of the time, the ice from the fast food restaurant's contain more bacteria than the fast food restaurant's toilet water."

Roberts' graph shows the toilet water, shown in red, had less bacteria in most cases than the ice inside shown in blue, and the ice from drive-through windows shown in green. Roberts' teacher says he wasn't surprised either.

Mark Danish, Honors Science Teacher:
"It does concern me and I think with any restaurant you have to think twice about what you may get there."

Roberts says she'll think twice before getting ice at fast food restaurants again.

Her project won the science fair at Benito Middle School, and she hopes to win the top prize at the Hillsborough County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which starts Tuesday at the USF Sun Dome.

UPDATE:
New Tampa 7th grader Jasmine Roberts received first place in a regional science fair for her project. 12-year-old Jasmine compared ice, to toilet water at fast food restaurants, and in most cases, the toilet water was cleaner. Jasmine won 800 hundred dollars for her project.

PS. I forgot to include the link - so here it is:

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=25442

[TteFAboB]

What types of bacteria? Too generic, if the toilets have any addition of anti-septic when flushed, the results would not be surprising at all.

In India (and some places in Africa) people "bath" with [human or not] poo-soap, they rub it all over their body and face, including the nose and mouth. Some actually eat the poo, it's full of bacteria and they don't get sick or die, quite the contrary, they develop a stronger immunity. Anti-biotics? Anti-septics? No such thing in the most backwater isolated villages of India, and some people there are actually more healthy than you, maybe me, and the 12 year-old brat.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

What types of bacteria? Too generic, if the toilets have any addition of anti-septic when flushed, the results would not be surprising at all.

In India (and some places in Africa) people "bath" with [human or not] poo-soap, they rub it all over their body and face, including the nose and mouth. Some actually eat the poo, it's full of bacteria and they don't get sick or die, quite the contrary, they develop a stronger immunity. Anti-biotics? Anti-septics? No such thing in the most backwater isolated villages of India, and some people there are actually more healthy than you, maybe me, and the 12 year-old brat.

Well, you've just made sticking to my diet much, much easier this evening.

[SUBMAN1]

This might add some info to it - Follow up story:

-S

Follow up: Student finds toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants

Byave Balut

Tampa, Florida - Of all the projects at the Hillsborough County Regional Science Fair, one project in the microbiology category is getting international attention.

A seventh-grade student from Benito Middle School in Tampa checked five fast food restaurants near the University of South Florida and found there was more bacteria in the restaurants' ice, than there was in the same restaurants' toilet water.

Jasmine Roberts, 7th-Grade Student: "When I get ice, sometimes I order ice just to chew on it, and now I know I'm not going to do that anymore just because of the amount of bacteria I found."

Dr. Daniel Lim is a microbiology professor at USF and a mentor to Jasmine Roberts. Dr. Lim says as a scientist, he wasn't surprised the toilet water had less bacteria than the ice.

Dr. Daniel Lim, USF Microbiology Professor:
"And simply the act of flushing may cleanse the toilet of any residual bacteria, most residual bacteria."

But Dr. Lim says ice inside an ice machine could be there awhile.

Dr. Daniel Lim:
"If you don't clean the receptacle, the materials routinely, there may be a possibility of bio-film or residual material remaining in that receptacle."

Jim Griffith, the President of Suncoast Ice Machines, sells leases and services ice machines. He also wonders about the cleanliness of the ice dispensers the student sampled.

Jim Griffith, Suncoast Ice Machines: "How old was that ice and where had it been all the time. Was it manual-fill or was it dispensed out."

But Griffith says most restaurants keep ice machines clean because they don't want to deal with problems, if they don't.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation checks ice machines during restaurant inspections twice a year.

A spokesperson says there's no way to tell how many ice machines do not pass inspection, but from talking with inspectors she says it does not appear to be a problem.



UPDATE:
New Tampa 7th grader Jasmine Roberts received first place in a regional science fair for her project. 12-year-old Jasmine compared ice, to toilet water at fast food restaurants, and in most cases, the toilet water was cleaner. Jasmine won $800 for her project.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

This should gross a couple people out:

Thanks for the warning

:hmm:

[gdogghenrikson]

yup I heard it on the glenn beck program www.glennbeck.com

[bradclark1]

My dog likes toilet water.

[Abraham]

And you like your dog?