You could be eating someone else's boogers and not even know it!

Our group chose the local Marathon gas station right across from the USF campus because it is a very high traffic gas station due to it's location. Everyone touches either a gas pump or a door at the gas station, which are both easy venues for transmitting bacteria. We saw dirty gas pumps as a Public Health Issue because they are something almost everyone cannot avoid, unless you're an avid bike rider! By increasing awareness of how easy it is to come in contact with others' germs we thought it would instill a little fear (or disgust!) to our readers and convince them to wash their hands ASAP after filling their tank.

Ever wonder what people were doing before they got out of their car to pump their gas? A trip to our local Marathon on Fletcher sparked our interest! One thing that came to mind when looking around at other drivers is nose picking! The probability that a nose-picker has sanitized their hands post-pick is slim-to-none, which increases the chances that you've grabbed a gas pump full of infectious bacteria such as Staphylococcus Aureus, the main pathogen of "Staph Infections", or even worse, Streptococcus Pyogenes which will give you a nasty case of "Strep Throat". Don't think you're that unlucky? How many times have you been rushing to class or work, grabbed some delicious Wendy's chicken nuggets on the go, and then "beep!", your gas light comes on? Naturally, you stop and pump gas, hop back into your car and dig into those tasty nuggets. Well, you just got a side of Strep and didn't even have to pay for it!

After only being at the Marathon for a few minutes, we counted about 22 cars in the parking lot. Assuming most of those cars had just filled up we estimated that's about 2 people touching each pump per 10 minutes. Multiply that by 24 hours and you've touched the same gas pumps as well over 1,000 other strangers! Just think about the mom who just changed her baby's diaper, the little boy who just got sent home from kindergarten for having a snotty nose, or the fisherman coming back from the Bay who's just had his hands in smelly bait all day! It's pretty gross when you stop and think about it.

Considering there are no wipes or hand sanitizer stations near the gas pumps, if you want to keep driving your car you're going to have to be more mindful of what you do with your hands after you pump gas. Some may say you could go as far as wearing gloves, but the more realistic solutions might be: washing your hands, using sanitizing gel or wipes as soon as possible after pumping gas, or holding the pump with a Clorox or baby wipe while filling up. And of course you could avoid picking your nose for the sake of other's health too! ;)