Gas Pumps Top List of Germiest Objects

...followed by mailbox handles and escalator rails
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2011 4:35 PM CDT
Gas Pumps and Mailbox Handles Top Most-Contaminated List
Gas pump handles topped a recent list of America's germiest objects to touch.   (Getty Images)

You may use hand sanitizers in rest rooms, but how about gas stations, mail boxes, and ATM machines? A new survey of America's yuckiest touchables found that 71% of gas pump dispensers and 68% of mailbox handles were highly contaminated with high-risk germs. Next on the list were escalator rails at 43% and ATM buttons at 41%. Coming in fourth and fifth were parking meters and crosswalk buttons, at 40% and 35%, respectively, the Detroit Free Press reports. (More germs stories.)

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