Ian's blog

I don’t know if this is true, but it makes you wonder

If you are a regular traveller on the London
Underground, here are some
facts which you’ll wish you hadn’t read.

During Autumn of 2000, a team of scientists at the
Department of Forensics
at University College London removed a row of
passenger seats from a
Central
Line tube carriage for analysis into cleanliness.
Despite London
Underground’s claim that the interior of their
trains are cleaned on a
regular basis, the scientists made some alarming
discoveries.

The analysis was broken down. This is what was
found on the surface of the
seats:

4 types of hair sample (human, mouse, rat, dog)

7 types of insect (mostly fleas, mostly alive)

vomit originating from at least 9 separate people

human urine originating from at least 4 separate
people

human excrement

rodent excrement

human semen

When the seats were taken apart, they found:

the remains of 6 mice

the remains of 2 large rats

1 previously unheard of fungus

It is estimated that by holding one of the
armrests,you are transferring,
to your body, the natural oils and sweat from as many
as 400 different people.

It is estimated that it is generally healthier to
smoke five cigarettes a
day than to travel for one hour a day on the London
Underground.

It is far more hygienic to wipe your hand on the
inside of a recently
flushed toilet bowl before eating, than to wipe
your hand on a London
Underground seat before eating.

It is estimated that, within London, more work
sick-days are taken because
of bugs picked up whilst travelling on the London
Underground than for any
other reason (including alcohol).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2002 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.