Whose childhood wasn’t filled with the sound of their Mother saying, “Don’t put those coins in your mouth! Take them out! And stop licking that dollar!”… … … What you guys didn’t constantly lick money as a kid? Jeez, now I feel kind of awkward… WELL – anyway – regardless of whether your mom told you not to put money in your mouth once or on a near hourly basis, she was right to do so! Paper money passes between hundreds of hands, and those hands are frequently also used to cover sneezes and coughs. Money can carry serious diseases… But what diseases? And how serious? And what about H1N1? Well let’s find out!

IS H1N1 ON MY MONEY?

Because H1N1 is a virus, it isn’t able to live long outside of a host body. That means that Swine flu dies within about 20 minutes when outside of an infected person. This means that most dollar bills encountered in your daily life will be free of H1N1. But notice I said most. When H1N1 is suspended within human mucus on paper money, it can live up to TEN DAYS !

Now you may be thinking, “Okay, well, as long as my cash isn’t dripping in snot, it looks like I’m in the clear!” Not so! Four out of Five paper bills are contaminated with at least tract amounts of cocaine. Users of cocaine will roll up bills, insert them in their mucus-rich noses, and snort up the powdery drug. When these bills are put back into circulation, they are able to cross contaminate and spread mucus, bacteria, viruses, and trace amounts of cocaine to other bills. If a few contaminated bills get into a money counting machine, hundreds of bills can all become contaminated within a matter of seconds! The same thing goes for infected bills that are introduced into ATM machines, money tills, or even the one dollar bills your grandmother put in your birthday card!

WHAT ELSE IS ON MY MONEY!?

H1N1 and flu viruses aren’t the only pathogen that can survive and spread via paper currency. “Researchers at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio collected 68 dollar bills from people at a grocery store and a high-school sporting event. According to Dr. Peter Ender, lead researcher, sixty-four (94%) of the bills were contaminated with bacteria known to cause either serious or mild illness. Five bills (7%) were found to be contaminated with bacteria which can cause infections in healthy people. Those bacteria included Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, both of which can cause pneumonia or blood infections. Fifty-nine bills were contaminated with bacteria that are usually harmless in healthy individuals, but can still trigger serious illness in those with depressed immune systems, such as people undergoing various types of medical treatment or those with HIV.”(From Hawaii Reporter, May 15, 2008)

While those were some staggering statistics and diseases on paper currency are a big problem, on average a dollar bill poses no more of an infectious threat than the average computer keyboard or office doorknob. (Fun Fact – studies have shown that a dollar bill IS dirtier than the average toilet seat!) However, as time progresses, international monetary transactions become more and more commonplace. Your office doorknob has, and will always be, connected to a door in your office. A dollar bill could travel to Hong Kong, then to India, then to Las Vegas, and then to you! The risk of slightly different mutations of common diseases that exist in other continents traveling back to the US is a very real possibility. In this world full of modern, drug resistant germs and bacteria, a treatment-resistant version of a common disease could very well be introduced to the United States from a foreign land via paper money.

IS ANYONE DOING ANYTHING TO MAKE MONEY LESS FILTHY?

Yes there is! But unfortunately, only in Japan. Since the late 1990’s, certain Japanese banks have been introducing new ATM machines designed to dispense clean, sterile money. These special, “clean ATMs,” take in contaminated, wrinkled, old yen. The old bills are then fed through metal rollers heated to 392°F. This kills 90% of all bacteria and leaves the notes flat and crisp. Hitachi invented this sanitization process by accident when trying to create a machine to iron out crumbled bills. When the designers realized that the high temperature required to iron the bills also killed bacteria, the clean ATM was born. Cash is a favored gift at Japanese weddings, and because of Japan’s extremely high regard for cleanliness, no respectable Japanese would give anything but untainted bills.

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT MY FILTHY MONEY?

If you have any contaminated money you would like to get rid of, please e-mail me, and I can arrange the pickup and disposal of any contaminated bills, from $1 to $100. Hahahaha. Seeing as no one wants to do that, there are other ways you can feel safe about handling money. Day to day money handling won’t lead to a high risk of infection, but for people who handle lots of paper bills a day, like people who work at cash registers, catching something from money can be a real possibility. Keep hand sanitizer with you, and use it often. Until the US gets clean ATMs, washing your hands frequently is the best way to prevent getting sick from your money.

Hopefully this article helped you realize how any why money becomes contaminated. Remember, if you have an outbreak of disease in your home, school, or office, Bio-Clean of New Jersey offers complete decontamination services. For more information on Bio-Clean Disease Decontamination, give us a call or check out our website!

Until the next post, stay healthy- and get that five’r out of your mouth!

Labels: disease, H1N1, H1N1 decontamination, infection control, money