PHOENIX — Everyone's worried about sanitation during the coronavirus pandemic.
We're washing our hands for 20 seconds, wearing masks and maybe gloves. Businesses are cleaning like they've never cleaned before, but are they doing a good job?
Dr. Andrew Carroll is a physician and showed 12 News a test to see how clean shared surfaces like shopping carts really are.
A score of zero means there's absolutely nothing living on that surface, and a number above 30 means it's not considered sanitary.
It does not pick up viruses, but clean is clean.
"This is a swab from a shopping cart inside a grocery store that supposedly has been sanitized or at least wiped down,” Carroll explained after using a test to measure the amount of surface bacteria. “There was a very helpful person inside who was handing out masks as well, so we'll see how clean those shopping carts really are.”
“And the verdict for those shopping carts, not great. Remember 30 is dirty."
To be sure, we hit up another store. This one with even more obviously sanitizing.
"All right here is shopping cart number two which was right next to a cart full of sanitation products,” Carroll showed. “Supposedly every time a cart comes in they wipe down, in fact when I returned the cart they took it to go wipe it down again. We'll see how this comes out."
"That shopping cart that was supposedly sanitized right before I got it and sanitized when I turned it back in comes in at 338."
So, none of the carts 12 News tested were spotless, in fact, they were pretty dirty.
Up next are some things you touch every day: gas pumps and keypads.
"Now in the past gas pumps were some of the dirtiest things we had every tested – coming in over 3,000,” Carroll said. “After the pandemic now that things are supposedly sanitized. This one came in at 1,787."
But gas pumps and the keypads on them were all over the place. Other pumps we tested came in closer to 70. Keypads came in a little lower, around 50.
The limit is 30, so none of them were spotless but some were definitely cleaner than others.
"If you're at a gas pump or a restaurant or a doorknob, you never know," Carroll said.
Carroll says you should not be relying on businesses to clean things for you even if they say they will.
"Trust that the businesses are going to be sanitizing those things, but if you have the ability, the opportunity, ultimately the responsibility for being safe is yours," he said.
And there's something important to remember, sanitizing will not make you healthier.
"It doesn't matter how much you sanitize things, your natural protection stays the same," Carroll explained.
That means no amount of sanitizer is going to give you immunity to anything, much less the coronavirus, but it can keep you from getting the virus in the first place.
So, we're not in a spotless world even now that people know how important it is to be clean.
The job of keeping you healthy is up to you.
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