When we talk about everyday objects contaminated by bacteria, we often think of technological devices such as computers, mobile phones, tablets. And they are indeed among the dirtiest equipment as an American study revealed a few months ago, so the surprise is elsewhere. Paradoxically, the object with the unsuspected degree of dirt has the function of cleaning, and we use it every day... It is of course the sponge. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports and carried out by 5 eminent scientists indeed suggests that the sponge is a veritable nest of microbes and, even worse, cleaning it will not change anything. In fact, research has shown that the most common methods of removing germs from the household object – such as placing it in a microwave oven or immersing it in boiling water – were completely ineffective. The cleaned sponges were actually no cleaner than one that had never been washed.
To reach these conclusions, the team of researchers collected 14 sponges from different homes located in a region of Germany. Each sponge was cut in half with sterile instruments and then frozen. The owners of the sponges then had to specify whether or not they cleaned their sponge and how often they replaced it; the average was established at about one month. The analyzes revealed that the sponges – regularly cleaned or not – were infected with a bacterium called Gammaproteobacteria, which can cause food poisoning and… cholera in particular! The porous material of the object is ideal for storing microorganisms of all kinds:a part comparable to the size of a piece of sugar can contain up to 54 billion bacterial cells! The kitchen sponge is even defined as “the largest reservoir of active bacteria in the whole house”. There is enough to make a face... The solution? Change sponges every week, according to experts. Well, we know what we have to do...
