Researchers have long discovered that the dirtiest thing in the world is not excrement, sludge, but coins, especially paper money.
The truth about germs on coins
A few years ago, a study by the City University of Hong Kong showed that in Hong Kong, China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, the Philippines, North Korea, 7 Asian countries and regions of the currency, the renminbi banknotes of the most bacteria, the number of 178,000, more than the second Hong Kong and Cambodia, a total of 160,000 more banknotes.
A few years later, the worst of the renminbi has changed, but it is still the dirtiest thing. Several studies and surveys have been quite illustrative of the problem.
Researchers at the Institute of Public Health of Guangdong Pharmaceutical College have conducted microbiological investigations on 8 denominations of banknotes (100 yuan, 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan, 5 yuan, 1 yuan, 5 cents, 1 cents) circulating in Guangzhou. The results showed that the detection rates of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were 84%, 16% and 3.3%, respectively.
The People's Bank of China has set up a banknote processing center in many cities nationwide, in addition to the destruction of the bank system to recover the residual currency, counterfeit money, another task is to regularly "clean" (deodorant, dust, sterilization), in order to improve the cleanliness of the renminbi. A test in Chengdu's banknote processing center found that the average number of bacteria on each note was about 20 species, with a quantity of 9 million. 5-angle, 1-yuan, 1-angle banknotes, each with a total of up to 18 million bacteria.
According to the inspection, the minimum number of bacteria contaminated with banknotes per square centimeter is 7,000, up to 110,000. The area of all denominations of the fifth set of RMB is: 10 yuan is 98 square centimeter, 20 yuan is 101.5 square centimeter, 50 yuan is 105 square centimeter, 100 yuan is 119.35 square centimeter. Even 10 yuan of 98 square centimeters, to 100,000 bacteria per square centimeter, there are 9.8 million of bacteria. Therefore, the number of bacteria on the coin is very difficult for people to imagine.
The bacteria in the coin are not only large in quantity but also of many kinds. The microbes on the coins include bacteria, viruses, parasites, mycoplasma, chlamydia and so on hundreds of species, of which bacteria have 20 species of ~30, including: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus, Escherichia coli, hairy fungus, salmonella, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, hemolytic streptococcus, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, dysentery Bacillus, Proteus, in addition, there are viruses, such as liver disease, hepatitis B virus, rotavirus and other viruses, up to dozens of kinds, as well as a variety of parasites, such as worms, the worm, tapeworm and so on.
There are also quite a lot of bacteria on foreign coins, so coins are also considered the dirtiest thing. Researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK recently tested the euro with about 2,400 bacteria on average, with 26,000 bacteria on each note, even in seemingly new, clean notes.
In addition, the number of bacteria on the coin also has a clear relationship with climate change, because the bacteria love hot and humid environment, in this environment easy to survive, and summer sweat oil secretion exuberant, in the money when it is easy for bacteria to attach and contaminate the coin. As the temperature decreased, the number of bacteria on the coin showed a downward trend and the winter reached its lowest point.
The bacteria on the coins spread a variety of diseases
The microbes on the coins can cause pneumonia, sepsis, sepsis, hair follicle inflammation, purulent infection, sore throat, diarrhea, fever and other illnesses. For example, Staphylococcus aureus is a relatively pathogenic force of a strong, can through wound infection, causing purulent and hair follicle inflammation, lung and blood infection and so on. Streptococcus can cause inflammation of the throat, tonsillitis. Candida can cause dermatitis.
The large amount of E. coli in the coin is a conditional pathogen that can enter the body through contaminated food, water and close contact, causing gastroenteritis. For the elderly, chronic wasting disease, large area burns patients, E. coli can invade blood flow, causing sepsis. Salmonella in coins can cause food poisoning and acute gastroenteritis, sepsis and diarrhea.
The microbes on the coins cause disease one is due to the number of its many, and the second is due to its longer survival period determined. Ordinary bacteria can live on coins for dozens of days, but some bacteria can survive for months. For example, the flu virus can survive on banknotes for up to 17 days, and Staphylococcus aureus can survive for months on coins.
However, there is a bacterium on the coin that does not attract people's attention, this is the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Spitting in the Chinese is seen as an important reason for the difficulty of controlling and reviving tuberculosis (mainly tuberculosis). The fifth National Tuberculosis Epidemiology site survey results show that there are more than 5 million TB active patients in China, more than 500 million people infected with TB bacteria, accounting for 45% of the total population of the country. China has the second-largest TB population in the world, after India. At present, the number of TB patients in China is about 1.3 million, and the number of TB deaths is 130,000 per year, surpassing the combined death toll of other infectious diseases. At the same time, China is one of 22 countries with severe TB prevalence and one of the 27 countries with severe MDR-TB prevalence worldwide.
The study found that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can survive 6-8 months in dry sputum. It is deduced that the sputum and saliva of people infected with TB bacteria remain on the coin, and the TB bacteria on the coin can survive for a long time, so that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be spread to more people through the wide circulation of coins.
Of course, different coins on the bacteria will have a number of different, and thus the human pathogenic force is very small. For example, Beijing University's survey of the pollution of Beijing's renminbi found that there were significant differences in the number of bacteria on different coins. One of the cleanest 1-dollar banknotes has 2,600 bacteria, with up to 1.8 million bacteria on the dirtiest 1-dollar note. However, the 10-dollar note is generally less bacteria than the 1-yuan note, while the bacteria on the 100-dollar note have less bacteria than the 10-dollar note. Because the greater the value of banknotes, the less the number of bacteria, the less harmful to People's health, while the banknotes are small, the circulation of more opportunities, more bacteria are attached, the pathogenicity of the stronger.
The bacterial transmission of the money on the disease is mainly through the use of money after contact with the body of the wound and rubbing eyes, blowing nose, nose and other means of transmission, through the digestive tract only a small part of the spread. Because of the bacteria on the money and then take food to eat and make mouth need to have a large number of bacteria, and these bacteria are mainly affecting the digestive tract of bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, salmonella and so on. Most of the bacteria eaten into the stomach are killed by acid and intestinal filtration. However, once the person's hands, mouth and other places in the presence of wounds, coins on all kinds of bacteria will enter the body, stir up trouble.
Avoid the bacteria on the money harm the health of people
The number of bacteria on the money, the variety is also many, and the survival of bacteria long, therefore, the need to avoid the money on the bacteria on the health of people harm. There are many methods, such as washing hands, money laundering, printing coins with new materials, changing lifestyles, etc.
Don't spit out the money and wash your hands after the money is an important way to prevent the bacteria on the coins from harming health. After paying or contacting money, you should wash your hands with soap in time to prevent rubbing your eyes, blowing your nose, and touching your mouth. Hand washing time takes 1-3 minutes, preferably with soap, because the alkaline effect is better, hand-washing before and after the number of bacteria is at least 10 times times more than.
Printing coins with new materials is also an effective way to reduce bacterial contamination, such as using plastic sheeting to print coins. Today, more than 20 central banks worldwide are issuing plastic banknotes, of which Australia is the first to print plastic banknotes around the world, and since then Canada, New Zealand, Romania, Papua New Guinea, Mexico and other countries have also issued plastic banknotes. Australia is also the first country in the world to have a full set of plastic banknotes in circulation.
Plastic banknote is a polyester material instead of paper, not only high security performance, easy to identify, do not suck water, not easy to break and not afraid of rubbing, and wear-resistant, can reduce the adhesion of bacteria, the materials used can also be recycled. Although the cost of making plastic banknotes is twice times that of banknotes, they are four times times longer than banknotes. The life of banknotes is generally 1.5 years, but the life of plastic coins can be up to 8 years.
The most important way to change your lifestyle is to use less cash and more credit cards or cards. The use of the latter will not only make life easier and faster, but also reduce the use of cash to infect bacteria and disease.
Researchers recently tested the currencies of Iran, China, Australia and other countries and found that the renminbi's bacterial content dropped to 25,000 per sheet, with an Iranian currency of 190,000, more than RMB, and a minimum of 700 per sheet. The researchers believe that while the renminbi is still one of the more contaminated currencies, the increased use of cards and credit cards by the Chinese has reduced cash use and reduced cash flow, naturally reducing the chance of bacteria sticking to coins. The Australian dollar is at least not only because of the use of new materials to print coins, but also with more people using cards, credit cards.
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