As per new research, reusable water bottles contain 40,000 times more bacteria than an ordinary toilet seat. The researchers swabbed various bottle components to see how colony-forming units (CFUs) thrived inside them. CFU is a measurement of bacteria concentration in any sample.

They discovered gram-negative rods and bacillus bacteria in abundance. Gram-negative bacteria like E. Coli and Klebsiella can cause life-threatening infections like pneumonia.

Bacterial infections are growing increasingly resistant to drugs, indicating that they are superbugs. Meanwhile, bacillus consumption might cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and gastrointestinal problems.

“Bacteria are biological pollutants in drinking water. These are just one of four types of pollutants that may be present in the water that flows from your faucets and into your reusable bottles. Although though US tap water is widely regarded as among the safest in the world, contamination can occur”, examine the studies.

The bottles contained up to 20.8 million CFUs of gram-negative bacteria on average. With 30 million CFUs, the spout and screw-top cap bottle was the most infected.

A toilet seat, by comparison, contains 515 CFUs. That is, the bottles contained bacteria four times the size of a computer mouse, 14 times the size of a cat dish, and, yep, 40,000 times the size of a toilet seat.

One of the scientists stated, “The human mouth is home to a diverse population of microorganisms. It’s not unexpected, then, that drinking containers are infested with germs”.

As stated by scientists, the bottles should be rinsed with soapy water at least once a day to avoid drinking contaminated water. Also, the bottles should be cleaned at least once a week.

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