Are Deadly Germs Infesting Your Car?
When someone’s coughing and spluttering on public transport, it’s easy to wish you had hopped in the car.
But the likelihood is your vehicle is festering with its own germs and dangerous bacteria, including staphylococcus and E.coli.
More than half of car owners have dropped food onto the seats, foot wells or into nooks and crannies, a third have spilt a drink and a tenth used under the seats as a rubbish bin.
Three fifths of motorists still eat at the wheel despite nearly one in ten cars having had someone been sick in it or a pet having a ‘little accident.’
Yet only a quarter clean the inside of their car once every three months and one in 20 have found rotting food.
As a tenth admit their car is a pigsty, microbiologists from the University of Nottingham put a selection of cars under the microscope.
They did this by taking swabs from the steering wheels and handbrakes to find deadly bugs and mould that have set up home.
Kim Woodburn, one half of cleaning duo Kim & Aggie of ‘How Clean is Your House’ fame also took a look at the hidden dangers of using your car as a rubbish bin.
She said: ‘It feels as if so many Britons don’t think twice about chucking their half-drunk bottles of pop under the seat or leaving tissues which they’ve blown their snotty noses in the foot well of their vehicles.
‘I was absolutely horrified to find some of the gunk that was hidden under some drivers’ seats – and it was really worrying to find the presence of a pathogen that could lead to E.coli.’
But despite the perils lurking in the cabin, a third of car owners blame the kids for the mess left behind.
A sixth of parents have to clean out the car weekly but a fifth said there was no point as their children soon make a mess again.
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