The Average Car Is Dirtier Than A Toilet: Study
We live in an era when manufacturers have begun to view car interiors as ‘living spaces’. This cannot be called baseless either. In the past few years, the amount of time that we spend inside our cars has increased sharply. A recent study has left many in shock after it revealed that the average car interior is ‘dirtier’ than a toilet. It was found that different types of bacteria dwell in various places within a car's interior, from the boot to the dashboard.
The objective of this study was to find out just how dirty the average car’s interior is and which areas are the most contaminated. For this, UK-based ‘Scrap Car Comparison’ partnered with Dr Jonathan Cox, a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at Aston University. Results are based on data from five samples.
Cox and his team sampled five used cars of varying ages. They used a sterile cotton bud swab, hydrated with phosphate buffered saline to collect samples from areas like the dashboard, steering wheel, gear knob, driver’s seat, and backseat. These swabs were then spread onto inoculated agar plates and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. The bacterial growth was then analysed by the researcher and his team. They found a lot of bacteria living inside the car.
Researchers managed to identify 1,425 bacteria in the boot alone. The driver's seat, gearstick, back seat, dashboard, and steering wheel had 649, 407, 323, 317, and 146 bacteria, respectively. Bacteria like E. coli, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Staph. Epi, Staph. aureus, and Rhodotorula were identified in these vehicles.
In this research, the boot was found to be the most contaminated, more than the bacterial contamination levels of an average toilet. All cars sampled had faecal bacteria in their boot! This raises serious concerns.
Dr Cox says: “The boot is often where we put our groceries when we go to the supermarket – and with a reduction in the use of carrier bags, there’s a much greater potential of throwing loose items into the boot of a car to travel home. With this in mind, we should be mindful of reducing the risk of this food by making sure to sufficiently clean any fruit, vegetables or other produce before eating it.”
The bacterial contamination levels of the gearstick, dashboard, driver’s seat and back seat on all five cars, as discovered by this study, were more than those of an average toilet seat and flush. Interestingly, the steering wheel showed very low levels of contamination on these cars.
“We all assume the steering wheel would be the worst for bacteria build up, due to the fact that our hands are mainly on the wheel, and so we think this is the main touch point. This means that the gearstick is probably overlooked when it comes to sanitising, however, our findings revealed that the gearstick is actually dirtier than a toilet flush, and in most cases dirtier than a toilet seat, meaning you should consider wiping down these areas too.”- says Dr Cox.
As was found out by this study, the extent of bacterial contamination was directly linked to the age of the vehicle. The older the car was, the more bacteria it had inside.
So, why do bacteria find the car interior a good place to grow and reproduce? There are a lot of reasons for this. Mainly, a car interior traps warmth and sunlight when parked (or operated) in the sun, maintaining comfortable temperatures for microorganisms to grow rapidly.
All in all, the results of this study are alarming and highlight the need for deep-cleaning our vehicles at regular intervals.