For many, the reusable water bottle is a key aspect of day-to-day living. After all, no one wants to contribute to pollution and trash buildup by allowing their plastic water bottle usage to spiral out of control.
However, there are certain precautions that need to be taken, according to a survey from a team with WaterFilterGuru.com.
While we may grow attached to a particular water bottle, the bottles have to be cleaned properly, so that we are not risking exposure to all sorts of harmful bacteria. According to the survey, reusable water bottles can harbor an insane amount of bacteria.
In fact, these bottles harbor as much as 40,000 times the number of bacteria that can be found on our toilet seats if we are not taking the time to clean them regularly.
This makes sense but we had no idea that the problem could be so dire. The study refers to the water bottles that we know and love as a “portable Petri dish.”
The spout lid, straw lid and squeeze top lid were all swapped by the researchers three times. They found that there were two types of bacteria present each time. Gram-negative rods are able to cause infections that can become resistant to antibiotics. Bacillus is a form of bacteria that is known to cause various gastrointestinal issues.
“The human mouth is home to a large number and range of different bacteria. So it’s not surprising that drinking vessels are covered in microbes,” said Imperial College London molecular microbiologist, Dr. Andrew Edwards, according to WION.
Regardless of how you may feel about these revelations, there is one thing that we can all agree on. We should all be cleaning our water bottles on a regular basis so that we avoid all of this unnecessary exposure to various forms of bacteria.