If you often use refillable water bottles, here’s something you should know.
A recent study looked into the germs accumulated on four kinds of water bottles – straw-top, squeeze-top, slide-top and screw-top – after a period of time and the results are astounding.
Measured by colony-forming units which provide a count of the number of bacterial or fungal cells within a sample, the study found that an average athlete’s water bottle is home to a about 313,499 colony-forming units.
To compare, a dog toy only had an average of 2,937 colony-forming units. Yikes!
Here are the water bottle options from the cleanest to the filthiest: Straw-top, screw-top, squeeze-top and lastly, the slide-top. The study also found that stainless steel was the cleanest material.
This study was only conducted on 12 water bottles, but the result speaks for itself. Make sure you really clean your water bottle regularly, or toss them out often for new ones.
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