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ONE love, blood, life
HONG KONG - How dirty is your money? Filthier than you think, as many of the dollar notes in a recent test were found to be teeming with colonies of bacteria, according to a CNN report.
In the test, currency from several Asian nations were put under the microscope.
The first danger sign Associate Professor Desmond O'Toole, a bacteriologist at Hong Kong's City University, noticed was the wear and tear of the notes. These provide excellent breeding grounds for germs.
'You get nooks and crannies on the note where things like faecal contamination can lodge,' he told CNN. Test results on older notes from China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and the Philippines showed thousands of bacteria.
Strangely enough, banknotes from impoverished North Korea were almost bacteria-free.
But one Chinese banknote that Prof O'Toole tested had 178,000 different types of bacteria and 9,500 organisms from the e-coli family alone.
'When these organisms get inside you, they can cause chronic disease and infections of the gut which are very, very unpleasant,' he said.
The newer notes that he tested were less of a health hazard. A crisp note withdrawn from a Hong Kong ATM had a fairly low bacteria-count of 10,000.
Some Asian banks have made hygiene a priority. In Japan, one bank heats up its notes before dispensing them.
Following the Sars outbreak in China, the People's Bank of China asked all branches to sterilise notes and keep them in the bank for 24 hours before distribution. More new notes were also produced to limit the circulation of old money.
'Handling money is like shaking hands with somebody,' said Prof O'Toole.
Although he was testing just a handful of notes, his results reinforce other studies, CNN said. In an earlier test, US researchers who looked at 68 bills collected in the Dayton area found more than 90 per cent of them had colonies of bacteria.
In the test, currency from several Asian nations were put under the microscope.
The first danger sign Associate Professor Desmond O'Toole, a bacteriologist at Hong Kong's City University, noticed was the wear and tear of the notes. These provide excellent breeding grounds for germs.
'You get nooks and crannies on the note where things like faecal contamination can lodge,' he told CNN. Test results on older notes from China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and the Philippines showed thousands of bacteria.
Strangely enough, banknotes from impoverished North Korea were almost bacteria-free.
But one Chinese banknote that Prof O'Toole tested had 178,000 different types of bacteria and 9,500 organisms from the e-coli family alone.
'When these organisms get inside you, they can cause chronic disease and infections of the gut which are very, very unpleasant,' he said.
The newer notes that he tested were less of a health hazard. A crisp note withdrawn from a Hong Kong ATM had a fairly low bacteria-count of 10,000.
Some Asian banks have made hygiene a priority. In Japan, one bank heats up its notes before dispensing them.
Following the Sars outbreak in China, the People's Bank of China asked all branches to sterilise notes and keep them in the bank for 24 hours before distribution. More new notes were also produced to limit the circulation of old money.
'Handling money is like shaking hands with somebody,' said Prof O'Toole.
Although he was testing just a handful of notes, his results reinforce other studies, CNN said. In an earlier test, US researchers who looked at 68 bills collected in the Dayton area found more than 90 per cent of them had colonies of bacteria.
