Faucets and Germs

Hands-free faucets may harbor more germs than manual types. The Los Angeles Times (3/31, Brown) "Booster Shots" blog reported, "Hands-free electronic faucets can save a lot of water -- and because you don't have to touch them with your grubby fingers to turn them on, have widely been assumed to help fight the spread of germs, too." However, a team at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has "discovered that at their facility, electronic faucets were more likely to be contaminated with Legionella bacteria than the old-fashioned manual type." According to the Baltimore Sun (3/31, Cohn) "Picture of Health" blog, senior study investigator Dr. Lisa Maragakis said the "new faucets did cut daily water use by more than half." But they also had "Legionella growing in half of the water samples from 20 faucets near patient rooms. That compares with 15 percent of the cultures from 20 of the old faucets in the same patient care areas." The Time (3/31, Park) "Healthland" blog noted that "in a hospital setting, the findings could be cause for alarm" because hospitalized patients are "more likely to have compromised immune systems, whether they are being treated for cancer or undergoing an organ transplant." Additionally, WebMD (3/31, McMillen) noted that because hospital patients "movements are limited, they use the same sinks throughout the day, increasing the number of exposures to bacteria."