You’re touching poop every time you go to the grocery store

Nothing is sacred anymore, not even man’s most convenient form of transaction. It turns out that self-service checkouts are riddled with poop bacteria. According to the prestigious Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 19 items that people touch every day, such as handrails, door handles and keyboards and self-service checkouts, and analyzed them in a lab. They found many of the items contained “high bacterial loads.”

Experts warn that you should wash your hands as soon as you are done using self-service machines. E. coli and bacteria called Klebsiella were found on a number of items. The severity of the strains varied but they can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever and bloody stools. Although they may not be harmful to most people, those with vulnerable immune systems could be severely impacted.

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