Bath towels are breeding grounds for bacteria and are no strangers to the spread of infectious diseases. This is what microbiologists interviewed in the Time. How to explain this phenomenon ? Every time we use a towel, the natural bacteria in our skin are deposited there. “Our organisms are made to live in this environment full of microbes”, explains Emily Martin, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (United States).
Advice against the proliferation of bacteria
While germs usually have no negative effect on health, towels, which are often damp, hot and absorbent, promote their development. Worse still: 90% of bath towels are contaminated with coliform bacteria and 14% with bacteria E. coli. “If you towel dry your face after about two days of use, you will probably get more E. coli than if you put your head in bathroom and flushed, ”explains Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona (United States).
To stop the proliferation of bacteria, specialists recommend drying towels well after each use, but also washing them much more regularly, that is to say approximately every two days. To eliminate all germs, a simple laundry is not enough: washing in hot water using a product containing an active oxygen-based bleach is nevertheless effective.
Read also :
Smartphones, real nests for germs
Hygiene: pajamas, this bacteria nest
The shared bathroom: a nest for faecal bacteria
