Coffee Cup Controversy Heats Up

Q. I have been reading the debate about the safety of coffee cup lids. One contributor called the controversy much ado about nothing.
I hate to bear the bad news, but it is true you could get sick from the hands that touch your coffee lid. Chuck Gerba, PhD, aka Dr. Germ, is an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona. He swabbed coffee cup lids and found a surprising number were contaminated.
According to the CDC, when you have a cold or flu you can leave viruses on just about anything you touch. Not to mention fecal matter: how often have you been in a restaurant bathroom and seen someone simply walk out without washing his hands? These bacteria can make you sick.
You know where your hands have been but not anyone else’s.
A. We had no idea people would get so excited about coffee cup lids. Thanks for alerting us to Dr. Gerba’s research on this topic. We are not surprised to learn lids that have been handled sometimes carry a lot of bacteria. If the person taking the money is also grabbing the cups and applying the lids, there is potential for cross-contamination.