Why You Should Never, Ever Touch That Hospital Elevator Button

A new study in the journal Open Medicine has revealed a little-known germ hotspot: the hospital elevator button. The research compared the amounts of bacteria living on 120 elevator buttons and 96 toilet surfaces at three hospitals in Toronto, Ontario.

The results will surely lift elevator buttons to the same ick-factor status as waiting-room magazines or hotel TV remote-controls: the elevator buttons were much dirtier than the toilet surfaces. The prevalence of colonization with bacteria of elevator buttons was 61%, the study reads. On the toilets, it was 43%.