Suggest OddsCATCHING A COLD FROM YOUR CASH
IStockPhoto 2040952 © Michal Besser
A five-dollar bill could provide a person with lunch. It could also provide a sprinkling of illegal narcotics, various bacteria, and maybe even a dose of the flu.
On average, any given dollar is in circulation for a little under two years. And now, as increasing numbers of Americans try to control their finances by returning to cash, there are ever more wallets, pockets, and purses through which that dollar—and billions like it—will pass. By the time someone swaps that worn out $5 bill for a sandwich and change, the bills he gives and receives have already passed through hundreds of thousands of hands.
The ultimate tourists, these dollars keep all sorts of microscopic souvenirs from their travels. Scientists from all over the world, including the US, have identified assorted harmful and potentially harmful strains of bacteria including staph strep, klebsiella pneumoniae (an opportunistic bacteria that can cause pneumonia), and E. coli on small samples of their countries’ paper currency. Strains of influenza virus and the common cold can live for days at a time on the largely cotton Swiss banknote—boding poorly for the cotton-and-linen US dollar.
Still, possession of a pathogen does not guarantee infection—the germs have to get to their preferred infection sites: through the nose and mouth to the respiratory tract for cold and flu, through open wounds and mucous membranes for pathogenic bacteria. If the dollars’ new owner keeps their hands away from their face until they’ve had a chance to wash them, the germs can’t get a foothold. On this, women and the over-50’s actually have an upper (and cleaner) hand. 1 in 3.33 US women and 1 in 3.45 adults 55 or older—roughly 30% of each—report always washing their hands after handling money; but what are the odds that men and youth will do the same? Only about 20% (1 in 5.26 for men, and 1 in 4.76 for adults 18-34). (See " Handwashing" for additional information on handwashing.)
But even if women and seniors are slightly less likely to ingest the germscape of their wallets, the vast majority of each group still pockets their change and turns to lunch without pause. And the bacteria, viruses, and even the narcotics all tag along for the ride.
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