Home » Researches warn us of cleanness
The invisible danger carriers live with us
We must reckon with the presence of microbes resistant to environmental effects and causing disease on the handle of shopping-trolleys. This can be read in the laboratory examination report of SGS Hungária Kft prepared a year ago.
On the request of Hu-Mago the SGS Hungária checked the cleanness of baskets and trolleys used in stores, with a special attention to shopping-centres, then came forward with a suggestion to prevent accidental infections. It can be claimed without a more significant laboratory analysis that viable micro-organisms may settle down on the surface of the handles of shopping-trolleys, on the handle of baskets. The majority of these are the constant dwellers of our environment that do not cause diseases. Dr. László Keresztury, head of laboratory, lays down however, that they have found enterobacteriacea-species, coliform-bacteria, enterococcus and staphylococcus in the samples taken in the much frequented stores selected at random, furthermore from the voluntary customers’ palms participating in the examination.
Single species of the bacteria are harmless fellows of animal and human organisms, but there are ones causing diseases among them as well. In the samples bacteria less resistant to environmental effects were found, their presence implies fresh contaminations originating from human or possibly animal organisms. Shopping-trolleys are used by people of various health and hygienic conditions, from whose organisms bacteria get into the environment, onto their hands, from there to the handle. In case of infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, further as a result of infectious skin diseases micro organisms causing diseases are likely to get even on the handle, and there they are capable of staying alive.
László Keresztury laid down that the raw food materials, the packaging materials contain various microbes, which can get on the hands during shopping and from there into the organisms. After a few hours of incubative period the microbes may cause nausea, vomiting, in more serious cases diarrhoea lasting for days, abdominal pains. Children fumbling the trolleys, the various foods then feeling in their mouth are especially endangered. Microbes causing infections spread fast and effectively, making many people ill, in much frequented places in winter and summer month alike. Detergents, paints, dissolvents, oil-products got onto the surface of the shopping-trolley during shopping, further on the environmental contaminations emitted by automobiles may cause unwanted consequences especially among children, the old and the ones suffering from diseases. During the examination a limited number of samples were processed in the SGS laboratory and the presence of bacteria, viruses, funguses and parasites causing special human diseases were not analysed. In the summary the definite opinion was that cleaning the shopping-trolleys and basket is not solved at present, and complicated at best. They suggest wiping the handles – that can be performed by the customers with special cleaning-cloths – and the periodical cleaning of the whole trolley with detergents in three steps. And it would not be useless either to provide a simple, picture warning of the importance of washing hands and personal hygiene.