Should we banish the little duckies in our bathtubs?

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AFP

Tuesday, march 27, 2018 08:17

UPDATE
Tuesday, march 27, 2018 08:22

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GENEVA | The curiosity of scientists has no limits: researchers in switzerland and the u.s. have closely studied the ducks in plastic that float in the bath of the small – and sometimes large. And the result is little ragoûtant.

In a press release titled ” The ugly little ducks bathroom and published on Tuesday by the swiss federal Council, the conclusions of the study are clear: all plastic body immersed in a liquid already polluted by our ablutions becomes a real bomb to bacteria and fungi.

To achieve this, a team of researchers from the Institute of water research at Eawag, the swiss federal institute of technology Zurich, and the University of Illinois (United States) was placed ducks new for eleven weeks in clean water, and another group of ducks in the “water bath used containing remnants of soap, dirt, sweat and bacteria from the human body”.

The ducks cut up and examined in the laboratory have shown that between 5 and 75 million cells had found a place on every square inch of surface.

The ducks exposed to the bath water dirty were carriers of fungi, and 80% of all the ducks examined had developed the germs of potential pathogens, including legionella and bacteria-resistant.

The problem comes mostly from the inside of the toy difficult to clean. “When the child taps on their bellies to squirt water, it is not uncommon that the jet is brown”, underlines the study.

“This can strengthen their immune defenses. At this point, it is rather positive,” says very seriously microbiologist dr. Frederik Hammes, Eawag, quoted in the press release. “But, he emphasizes, this may also cause irritation of the eyes and ears, or gastrointestinal infections more problematic.”

It seems that one must renounce the ducks of bath or the in-depth cleaning after each use, interrogate the authors of the study. Or, as some recommend on the internet, filling in the holes of the naughty small ducks to prevent the spurts?

Mr. Hammes suggests a solution that is more scientific: to harden the rules on the polymers used in the manufacture of toys designed to float in our bath tubs.