Killer Karts

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective is to see whether wiping down grocery cart handles reduces bacterial growth and which of 3 different disinfectant wipes prevents the most bacterial growth. Methods/Materials For each of 3 different disinfectant wipes, 3 wipes were used to wipe down 9 randomly selected grocery cart handles. The cart handles were swabbed with a sterile swab after drying for 30 seconds and cultured on sterile agar plates. An additional 3 cart handles were swabbed without being wiped by any disinfectant wipe and cultured on agar plates. Three agar plates were also cultured with a sterile swab and used as controls. The plates were then incubated for a total of 96 hours with the number and appearance of bacterial colonies recorded for each plate. The experiment was repeated 2 more times for a total of 3 trials. The growth of bacteria was compared by totaling up the number of colonies found for each type of wipe, nondisinfected and control plates. Results The control plates had 0 bacterial colonies at 96 hours. The non disinfectant plates had a total of 377 colonies at 96 hours. The SaniCart Wipes plates had a total of 6 colonies at 96 hours. The Wet Ones Antibacterial Towelettes plates had a total of 6 colonies at 96 hours. The Clorox Disinfectant Wipes plates had a total of 3 colonies at 96 hours. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that the disinfectant wipes significantly reduced the number of bacterial colonies growing. I also conclude that the Clorox Disinfectant Wipes were slightly more effective at reducing the growth of bacteria than either the SaniCart Wipes or the Wet Ones Antibacterial Towelettes.

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Pharmacology/ Toxicology · Entry J1427

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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