Out of the mouths of babes comes this news. Budding scientist, 12-year-old Jasmine Roberts from Benito Middle School in Tampa, Fla., has created a science fair project that has lots of grown-ups sitting up and taking notice. Her conclusion: Ice at fast food restaurants is laced with bacteria. Lots of it.

 

 

 

Tampa Bay Online reports that Roberts examined the amount of bacteria in the ice served at fast food restaurants and the amount of bacteria in the toilet bowl water in those same restaurants. The toilet bowl water was cleaner 70 percent of the time.

 

 

 

Even Roberts found the results to be startling. She told Tampa Bay Online reporter Michele Sager, "I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much. And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner."

 

 

 

The study: Roberts collected ice samples from five fast food restaurants near the University of South Florida, including self-service dispensers inside the restaurants and in drinks served through the drive-through windows. Then she collected samples of water from the toilets in those same restaurants. All the samples were placed in sterile containers. She tested them in a lab at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, where she volunteers with a University of South Florida professor.

 

 

 

The results: In four of the five restaurants, the ice that came from the self-service machines had more bacteria than the toilet water, reports Tampa Bay Online. Three of the five cups of ice from the drive-through windows had more bacteria than the toilet water. The bacteria in the ice included fecal coliform or E. coli, which can only come from the feces of warm-blooded animals.

 

 

 

How did the bacteria get into the ice? Roberts suspects either the machine was not properly cleaned or an employee with soiled hands touched the ice.

 

 

 

Geoff Luebkemann, the Florida state official whose agency is responsible for regulating hotels and restaurants, told Tampa Bay Online, "Ice machines are part of the health inspections. There are a lot of factors that have to be considered, like how accurately did she gather and test her specimens. Plus, comparing the ice to toilet water can be misleading because there are acceptable levels of bacteria for water."

 

 

 

Not so says Galina Tuninskaya, vice president of Applied Consumer Services, a private lab that tests drinking water. "No levels of fecal coliform or E. coli are acceptable," she told Tampa Bay Online. "If you find that, you've got a problem."

 

 

 

In case you wondered, Roberts won the science fair.

I don't believe that.

But toilet water isn't too bad once you get used to it. So it doesn't really matter anyways.

That is a little impossible, seeing as the ice is below freezing, therfor (and this is an educate quess), it is too cold for the ice to contain bacteria itself. Of course some will be preasent, but not enough to out do toilet water.

I'm ashamed to share a last name with her :(

there are more germs on an average users keyboard than on their toilet. but which ones would be the ones that harm you? there may be more in the ice, probably not as bad of ones though.

I watched a show on tv.. it was either 60 minutes, or 20/20, and they had some stuff about this, also saying SOME water dentists use is no better, or worse than toilet water, so i could beleive this.

Toilet water is not that unclean. The only real bacteria that it comes into contact with are if someone is sick. Normal fecal matter is pretty harmless, considering it's nothing but waste matter.

 

 

 

But that's not the issue. I will be asking for no ice from now on.

That is a little impossible, seeing as the ice is below freezing, therfor (and this is an educate quess), it is too cold for the ice to contain bacteria itself. Of course some will be preasent, but not enough to out do toilet water.

 

 

 

I'm confused about the educated part of this guess. Bacteria can live in conditions below freezing...

 

 

 

But that's not the issue. I will be asking for no ice from now on.

 

 

 

I always do anyway, especially at places that they make you pay for refills. The drinks are already cold and I love sipping on an ice-free coke. :P

That is a little impossible, seeing as the ice is below freezing, therfor (and this is an educate quess), it is too cold for the ice to contain bacteria itself. Of course some will be preasent, but not enough to out do toilet water.

 

 

 

if all bacteria died at freezing temp. there would be no sickness in winter, which is absolutely false. many bacteria live in extreme conditions. remember, freezing SLOWS bacteria GROWTH, it does NOT kill it. to sterelize you subject either HIGH temperatures or chemical substances, freezing is not a form of sterlization.

That is a little impossible, seeing as the ice is below freezing, therfor (and this is an educate quess), it is too cold for the ice to contain bacteria itself. Of course some will be preasent, but not enough to out do toilet water.

 

 

 

Cold temperatures don't kill bacteria - it merely slows reproduction rate. Once the water melts the bacteria will be the same as always. That's why we boil water to kill bacteria, instead of freezing it - and that's why we catch colds in the winter.

 

 

 

But yea, I agree with Bari - toilet water isn't actually that unclean.

Meh, I wouldn't care if there were a few bacteria in my ice, my immune system could use the target practice. I don't get all this panic about a few bacteria here or a handful of germs there. You have the right to be a hypochondriac, and I have the right to point and laugh while your untrained immune system can do nothing but watch as a random virus turns your vital organs to jelly.

Well there are bacteria that have adapted to extremely cold and extremely hot situations (think of the bacteria that live in a geyser!). There are also bacteria that live deep underwater, on ice, etc.

 

 

 

I really doubt this project. I'd have to try it myself or see more studies supporting this result before believing such a thing.

Never knew that. But is it bactira that can harm you? Because there's a lot that don't do anything.

 

I always ask for no ice, since they always put 60% soda 40% Ice, drives me mad :evil:

Well there are bacteria that have adapted to extremely cold and extremely hot situations (think of the bacteria that live in a geyser!). There are also bacteria that live deep underwater, on ice, etc.

 

 

 

I really doubt this project. I'd have to try it myself or see more studies supporting this result before believing such a thing.

 

 

 

Agreed. Aren't some toilets sanitized regularly anyway? I know of a few fast food joints that use those things you put into the bowl, that emits santizing fluid everytime you flush.

Well, there are also more germs (ooo, the unscientific word!) in your mouth than there are people in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

And that story is true. I heard it from lots of realiable places.

Never knew that. But is it bactira that can harm you? Because there's a lot that don't do anything.

 

 

 

Most bacteria are harmless, but there are types of bacteria that will harm you. There are types of ecoli living in your body which helps your body digest food. Then there are other ecoli that are harmful; remember the uncooked meat ecoli scare? :)

Bleh!

 

 

 

Who the heck cares? I've been drinking drinks from fast food restaurants since I was probably 3 years old, and I'm perfectly happy and pretty healthy.

 

 

 

*croaks over and dies*

That was my educated guess, i didnt know that bacteria could live in sub-0 temps.

So do we have a real source for this supposed science fair project? Because right now it fits perfectly in my "heard it before, known to be false" bin.

That is a little impossible, seeing as the ice is below freezing, therfor (and this is an educate quess), it is too cold for the ice to contain bacteria itself. Of course some will be preasent, but not enough to out do toilet water.

 

 

 

We have found bacteria in Antartica before, also they can live for upto 3 years on the moon http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1311.html so I think they can live a few weeks in a small freaser to be dumped into a nutrent rich broth called soda.

 

 

 

Facts about the moon.

 

about 1:3 Earth gravity

 

tempetures range from -200 to 200 degrees Farenhight

 

one day is 28 times longer than Earth's

 

 

 

Very little can kill the simpulest of life forms.

it also depends on how that girl collected the ice, if she used her own hands to pick them up... you know what :roll:

 

 

 

A study from a 12 year old isn't trustable, but at the same time I'm pretty sure that the ice from fast food restaurants are dirty.

well i work in a fast food joint, and we use a scoop to put a ice into a bucket to transfer the ice from the ice machine to the drink machines...

 

So if anything its the machines or the ice machine that is causing these problems, im not sure if every fast food works like this but yeah...

well i work in a fast food joint, and we use a scoop to put a ice into a bucket to transfer the ice from the ice machine to the drink machines...

 

So if anything its the machines or the ice machine that is causing these problems, im not sure if every fast food works like this but yeah...

 

 

 

But what did that scoop touch? That's the kicker.

 

 

 

But it really does not matter. As I said before, toilet water is cleaner than you think. In addition, a healthy immune system is resistant to most of the bacterial strands in existence today, and more than powerful enough to deal with most new mutations.

 

 

 

Personally, this sounds like a huge propaganda advertisement or something. Was the girl sponsored by some health company?

depends on where she got the toilet water from aswell.

 

 

 

I've seen places with toilet water so sterilized you wouldn't want to drink water from your own tap in comparison to 'bacterial content'. And other places you'd probably die of some STD if you did so much as touch it.

 

 

 

 

 

Same goes with ice. And how it is produced / handled. Most fast-food places here have auto-mated. Press a button, half a dozen cubes fall out (like fridges that make ice).

 

I dunno how clean it is inside them but I'd say enough to not get shut down by health inspecters, and that's good enough for me.