First, there was the Department of Health's man drinking fat anti-soda ad.
Now, a bunch of biologists in Roanoke, Va., are telling us that the soda that comes out of drink fountain dispensers has all sorts of other goodies in it, like coliform bacteria and other microbial contaminants.
The study, published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology, looked at "microbial populations" in soda dispensed from 30 beverage fountain machines (both self-service and staff-operated) in restaurants and cafeterias and found coliform bacteria in nearly half of the samples, plus other “opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms” (translation: icky stuff), according to the Smithsonian Magazine's blog.
The scientists concluded that such soda fountains “may contribute to episodic gastric distress in the general population,” or more serious consequences for immunocompromised people...
No wonder your stomach is rumbling.
And that's not all. The water that comes out of those fountains has the same "icky stuff" in it too. Even worse, most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested, the scientists said.
You'd think that drinking tap water, buying soda in a can or even bottled water might be safer. But as the Smithsonian Mag points out, that's not necessarily the case either.
Health
The Environmental Working Group found tap water in 42 states was contaminated with 260 different chemicals and that bottled water bought from stores in nine states and the District of Columbia was found to contain traces of 38 different pollutants and excessive levels of potential carcinogens, according to the Atlantic.
So the next time you're out, you might want to bring along some Pepto. That, or invent a sanitizer for your drinks.
Bottoms up!
