The "ugly little bath ducks", as the Swiss Federal Council describes them in its press release published on Tuesday March 27, are real nests of bacteria and fungi... This is the surprising conclusion of a very serious study carried out by a team scientists from the Eawag Water Research Institute, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland) and the University of Illinois (USA).
The researchers compared the evolution of two groups of new ducks over eleven weeks. The first was immersed in clean water and the second in used bath water, containing leftover soap, dirt, sweat and bacteria that accompany the human body. The results are clear:dirty water from the bathtub and plastic really don't mix well... The ducks in the second group thus have between 5 and 75 million cells on each square centimeter and 80% of them have developed potentially pathogenic germs, in particular legionella and highly resistant bacteria. Yuck…
This problem comes mainly from the fact that the inside of the plastic toy is very difficult to clean. We must admit, we never thought of dismantling the duck to clean it...
"When a child presses on the duck's belly to squirt water, it is not uncommon to find that the jet is brown" underlines the study. “It can strengthen their immune defenses… At that time, it is rather positive. comments microbiologist Frederik Hammes from Eawag. “But it can also cause eye and ear irritation or more problematic gastrointestinal infections,” he continues, revealing the other side of the coin. In order to remedy this, the researcher proposes to tighten the regulations on the polymers used in the manufacture of toys intended to float in our bathtubs. In the meantime, if you don't want to give up on these ugly ducks, you have no choice:either you completely plug their holes, or you opt for a very, very meticulous cleaning after each dip... It's up to you!
