The 5.5 million peoplewho habituate New York City ’s tube system every day do n’t need to be told that the subway system is vulgar . But new inquiry transmit by the Weill Cornell Medical College has revealed just how nasty subway stations are — and even New Yorkers might be surprised by what was find lurking there . Researchers spent 18 months swabbing subway stations and trains along the entire organisation for deoxyribonucleic acid , andaccording to theWall Street Journal , “ establish germ that can cause bubonic plague uptown , meningitis in midtown , stomach trouble in the financial district and antibiotic - tolerant infections throughout the borough . ”
WSJalso created a fun ( bet on your version of fun , I guess)interactive mapthat provide a tone at the bacteria discovered in each of the city ’s 466 subway station . At 42nd Street - Bryant Park , the close subway to themental_flossoffices , scientist swob two benches , a turnstile , and a staircase rail . They found 69 unique bacteria that are associated with things like heart valve infections ( Enterococcus gallinarum ) , food poisoning ( B cereus ) , radiation syndrome resistance ( Acinetobacter radioresistens ) , and urinary tract infection ( Aerococcus viridans ) . Gross . They also found bacteria tie in with mozzarella cheese and Italian tall mallow .
Bacteria DNA accounted for 38.99 percentage of DNA collected at the Bryant Park post , while 2.73 percentage of the DNA collected belong to non - bacteria like louse , green plants ( which stimulate signified ; there ’s a small flower shop in the station ) , humans , and rodents . The rest of the DNA could n’t be key .
Interesting finds at other stations includeLeuconostoc citreum , a bacterium assort with the making of kimchi and sauerkraut;Pseudomonas putida , which is used in petroleum clean up ; andShigella sonnei , which induce dysentery ( riding the subway just nonplus a fiddling bit more likeOregon Trail ) .
The scientists — who hope they can practice their research to discover young slipway to track disease outbreaks and crusade antibiotic resistant bacterium — get wind 562 species of bacterium . Thankfully , most are harmless , and the scientist say the levels in the system place no significant wellness threats . “ I do n’t want people to be terrorise , ” Weill Cornell researcher Christopher Mason tell the WSJ . “ I desire them to be intrigued . ” Still , if you ’re traveling on the New York City underground system , you might desire to pack a bottle of hand sanitizer — and use it often .
