dirty bath toys

what kid doesn't like playing with toys in the bath? my daughter probably wouldn't take a bath unless she had her menagerie of rubber dolphins, and fish, and ducks (oh my!). i do try to disinfect them, but it's one of many chores that usually falls by the wayside... after watching this piece from NBC's Today show, i'm heading up to the girls' bathroom and just throwing out most of her tub toy collection.

as part of the Today show's "Secret Filth Exposed!" series, Today asked NYU microbiologist Philip Tierno, a household germ expert, to test several bath toys on loan from a handful of families. what he found coating these innocent looking toys is truly disgusting: fecal matter, e. coli, strep, and staph aureus bacteria.

"bathwater becomes literally a bacterial soup. the toys are the depository of these organisms" said Tierno.

the worst culprits of course were the toys with holes since they usually allow for bacteria to be trapped inside. Tierno opened up some of those toys and what they found inside were compared to the walls of sewers. blech!

see the entire eye-opening and stomach-turning clip below:

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