Sabtu, 31 Oktober 2009
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In recent years, doctors have been puzzled by the very rapid spread of antibiotic-resistant types of bacteria. Now, researchers trying to find out how bacteria travel so quickly from one area to another have found one possible cause: money. To be more exact, paper money. The researchers, who work at an Air Force base in the United State, described dollar bills as "bacteria farms."
There is nothing particularly suprising about the results. Anything that is handled by many people and never washed is bound to be dirty. What is suprising is the great variety of bacteria on money. Almost a hundred different types of bacteria were found on the bills, which had been randomly collected from grocery stores in the area.
Of these bacteria, allmost 95% could cause illness in humans. On almost 10% of the bills were found some particularly dangerous types of bacteria--klebsiella, which causes pneumonia, and staphylococcus, which causes food poisoning.
As you might expect, the dirtiest money was US$1 bills, whereas US$50 bills were the cleanest. These figures would be probably be similar for any country's paper money. Before you panic and decide to burn all your money, remember what the scientists say: all the bacteria found on the bills are also commonly found in the human body, where they don't always cause health problems.
There is nothing particularly suprising about the results. Anything that is handled by many people and never washed is bound to be dirty. What is suprising is the great variety of bacteria on money. Almost a hundred different types of bacteria were found on the bills, which had been randomly collected from grocery stores in the area.
Of these bacteria, allmost 95% could cause illness in humans. On almost 10% of the bills were found some particularly dangerous types of bacteria--klebsiella, which causes pneumonia, and staphylococcus, which causes food poisoning.
As you might expect, the dirtiest money was US$1 bills, whereas US$50 bills were the cleanest. These figures would be probably be similar for any country's paper money. Before you panic and decide to burn all your money, remember what the scientists say: all the bacteria found on the bills are also commonly found in the human body, where they don't always cause health problems.
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the stranger
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