Beware! Your Reusable Water Bottle has 40K Times more Microbes than Toilet Seat

Reusable bottles can have around 40,000 times more bacteria than any average toilet seat. This alarming information was revealed in a study by researchers from US-based waterfilterguru.com.

These researchers swabbed different parts of water bottles including the spout lid, screw-top lid, stray lid and squeeze-top lid to search for the microbes present there. They found two types of bacteria present – gram-negative rods and bacillus, reported HuffPost.

In their study, the researchers explained that while gram-negative bacteria can cause infections that are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, certain types of bacillus can result in gastrointestinal issues. According to them, these reusable water bottles contain twice as many germs as the kitchen sink, can harbour four times the amount of bacteria as a computer mouse and 14 times more than a pet’s drinking bowl.

Even though bottles may serve as a breeding ground for high numbers of bacteria, it is not necessarily dangerous, feel microbiologists. The researchers recommended washing reusable bottle at least once a day with hot soapy water, and sanitizing it at least once a week.