robert Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 From CNN News. Fast Food Ice Dirtier Than Toilet Water!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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinisterkungfu Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 We did some tests in my environmental biology class. The iced tea at Taco Bell tested extremely high for fecal coliform bacteria. I don't think the health inspectors really check that sort of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 We did some tests in my environmental biology class. The iced tea at Taco Bell tested extremely high for fecal coliform bacteria. I don't think the health inspectors really check that sort of thing. They probably don't even imagine it could be there (how does the water from the iced tea machine even get close to poo? Employees not washing hands after using the rest room?). I don't eat at fast food restaurants, but now I'm paranoid about any water in any restaurant (unless it comes in a sealed bottle!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I don’t know if you can even trust bottled water after the whole Dasani w/ bromate thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 What happened with Dasani and bromate ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I don’t know if you can even trust bottled water after the whole Dasani w/ bromate thing. That does it! I'm just going to drink my own urine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I don’t know if you can even trust bottled water after the whole Dasani w/ bromate thing. That does it! I'm just going to drink my own urine! I'm not sure, but I don't think that's vegan Kathryn.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I glad I’m not the only one who didn’t know about this. I was reading some of my boyfriends old copies of Ad Buster yesterday when I came across this article. Back in 2004 coke was marketing its line of bottled water (Dasani) in the UK. Their slogan is “as pure as bottled water gets”. Apparently some controversy started when it was discovered that Dasani is not spring water, like some other brands, but simply filtered tap water. Coke defended its product saying it was more then just tap water thanks to its “highly sophisticated purification process.” This process is responsible for adding bromate to the water. The Food Standard Agency says bromate is "a chemical that could cause an increased cancer risk as a result of long-term exposure, although there is no immediate risk to public health". The legal limit for Bromate in the UK is 10 parts per billion but Dasani samples tested between 10 and 22 parts per billion. As a result coke recalled 500,000 bottles of water. My main question is why is any bromate allowed to be present in drinking water http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/out_of_date/53102P65notice.htmlhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0320-08.htmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3550063.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Well that sucks ! I did drink Dasani a little bit when I visited CA - it's all over the place, but I'm glad I usually drink Poland Springs (although every once in a while I'll splurge for Evian ) -- and nothing aside from the few tentacles that have started growing out of my right shoulder has happened. (jk) Has anyone heard anything bad about either one of those brands ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compassionategirl Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 My reaction to all of the above is: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesty leroux Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Haha oh my gosh, I saw this a few weeks ago and it totally freaked me out. It was on TV right before me and my friends went out to a bar, and I was designated driver so I ordered a big glass of ice water, and then I was too freaked out to drink it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Honestly I’m not too surprised about the ice water having bacteria. Do any of you guy watch myth busters? There was one where they were testing toothbrushes to see if they were being contaminated be tiny droplets of toilet water that were in the air after the toilet was flushed. The spaced out a whole bunch of them around the room to see how far from the toilet the contamination traveled + they placed one in the next room under a jar to be a control subject. At the end of the test all of the toothbrushes tested positive for contamination even the control subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Did they put the toilet lid down before they flushed ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 No I don’t think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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