My great grandmother was known for being a neat freak with not a speck of dust to be found in her home.  She even washed her money. It turns out that Grammie was right on the money when it came to washing her cash.  Researchers have recently discovered some pretty disgusting things on our dollar bills. 

New York University researchers discovered 3,000 types of bacteria in a recent study of dollar bills collected in New York City.  This is bacteria that causes food poisoning, diphtheria, gastric ulcers, skin infections and other unpleasantness. And the microbes grow on our hard earned cash.  The warm wallet is a petri dish for the bacteria to cling and flourish. Did I mention they found  fungi and plant pathogens, also?

If you can distance yourself from the grossness of all that is found on money, it's actually rather intriguing.  How did those germs get there?  Why is there DNA from horses, dogs & even white rhino?  Are New Yorkers dirtier than New Englanders? Probably not, they would probably find lobster and blueberry DNA on our bills.  That sounds yummier. So, I guess the moral of the story is; Listen to your elders and wash your money...or use plastic...I shudder to think what wonders of science are growing on our credit cards.  That will be the next study.

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