It’s something I’ve probably touched at least once a week since I’ve owned the car. New JerseyYou hop out of your car and swipe your card at the gas station, careful not to get too upset by the price. Once you’ve input what you want, you lift the kiosk handle and it starts filling your tank.
However, the whole process is said to be a mass recruitment program for bacteria.nice to meet you) really wanted to test and see if the gas pump mechanics were as bad as everyone said they were.
Petrol pump test
The premise of the video was apparently inspired by a comment from another TikTok user, who was talking about the dirt they were seeing on gas station handles.
“A friend of mine is convinced that the most unpleasant thing is the pump handle,” they write, and they’re asking How Dirty to conduct an experiment to test this hypothesis.
The TikTok user responded to their demand, starting the clip off by standing at a gas station and posing the question in an overlay: “How dirty are gas stations?”
Next, wipe the inside of the gas pump handle. Next, wipe the button you have to press to get gas. Then wipe the buttons on your point of sale system.
He then labels the different petri dishes indicating which parts of the pump he had wiped down. The result of his experiment? Utter disgust.
As it turns out, all of the petri dishes clearly had bacteria growing on them, but one was filthier than the others: A TikTok user picked up the petri dish with the Q-tip buttons in it and called it “totally filthy,” adding that the dish “also smelled awful.”
Compared to the other dishes, this one seems to be more lush and darker in color.
nice to meet you Reply to @josefinesvrd How filthy are the gas pumps? They can hurt a lot more than just your wallet. #Science #germ #ScienceBitch #gross #dirty #How dirty #dirty #interesting #Bacteria #ScienceTalk #nice #fyp #clean #for you #Micro #Curious # Science #Science #experiment #Bacteria #FunFacts #fact #fact #Bacteria #InterestingFacts #InterestingFacts #AmazingFacts #AmazingFacts #wonderful #RandomFacts #RandomFacts #randomfacts #FactTime #DailyFacts #FunFacts #FactOfTheDay #FunFactOfTheDay #bio #Biology #BioMed #Lab #Labwork #CleanTok#Laboratorio #Biology #Microbiology #Sitok #ScienceTalk #ScienceMagic #ScienceisCool #ScienceFair #foreign bacteria #BacteriaSquad #MyBacteria #viral #Bacteria #Bacterial contamination #Petriedish #experiment #interesting #Funny videos #viral #viralvideo #viraltiktok #trend circle#Trending Videos #TrendTicTok #life #stem #stem #StemFeed #STEMFeed #Long videos #celebrate #VenusStar #Shinhee #Batteria #world heritage #Gemijandarmes#Science Experiments #Science Experiments #experiment #LearnTicTokTogether ♬ Back to reality – Gwap 99
TikTok users were fed up
One person wrote that they couldn’t understand why COVID-19 precautions wouldn’t carry over into post-pandemic life.
“Has anyone else continued to use hand sanitizer since COVID? I’ve been using it every day,” they wrote.
Some people said they’ve always found gas station pumps to be dirty, so they take precautions: “I keep gloves in my car door. I always wear gloves,” one wrote.
For others, it brought about a stark realization of past mistakes that arose out of simple habit: they had no idea what they’d been putting their body through for years. “How many times have I picked my teeth or eaten potato chips right after pumping gas?” one person wrote.
Some people said it has become a norm to sanitise their hands after using petrol pumps.
“I always use hand sanitizer right afterwards, and I use a lot of it,” they said. “As soon as I get home or to the store, I wash my hands and use hand sanitizer again. I hope it works (laughs).”
Dirty ranking
drive ran an article detailing just how filthy car parts are compared to other filthy objects in general, and gas pump handles have a terrible reputation compared to other objects: For example, the article states that gas pump handles are 12,000 times dirtier than the average public toilet seat.
But what’s even worse is the fact that most car steering wheels are about 4,000 times dirtier than those toilets. Knowing this might just inspire you to keep some disinfectant wipes in your car at all times.
Reader’s Digest Newspapers have also written about this filthy gas pump phenomenon. In their articles, they cite the work of Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist known by his nickname Dr. Gerba, who studied gas station pumps. Gerba gave a startling figure: “71 percent of the pump handles at the gas stations sampled contained filthy bacteria. [the] “These are the types of microbes most commonly associated with illness and disease,” he said.
The article also explains how the pumps get contaminated with dirt: Drivers who are stuck in their cars for long periods of time probably don’t have access to soap and water. Maybe they go to a bathroom that doesn’t have soap or paper towels. So they keep driving in a greenhouse, and bacteria grows on their hands. Then, when they stop to get gas and press the button, they add more bacteria to the mixture in the petri dish that How Dirty documented.
The Daily Dot has reached out to How Dirty via Instagram direct message for further comment.
Internet culture is a mess, but we’ll give you the lowdown every day via email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. hereWe deliver the best (and worst) of the Internet straight to your inbox.
