Elevator buttons

Abstract

The isolation of many potential pathogens from many sources commonly used by the public, raised awareness on needed measures to avoid such a hidden danger. In this study another commonly used surface, namely the elevator buttons of public elevators located in the busy Ras Beirut area in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, were studied for bacterial contamination. Eight of the 12 public elevators sampled (67%) grew more than one bacterium, the buttons of the remaining 4 elevators (33 %) grew only one bacterial organism. The isolated organisms included: coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from the buttons of 75 % of the sampled elevators, Staphylococcus aureus from 67 %, Klebsiella pneumoniae (sub sp. pneumoniae 1) from 17 %, Enterobacter aerogenes from 8 %, and Rahnella aquatilis also from 8 %. Due to the frequency of use of public elevators, people usually do not note the threat posed by these elevators. As hands remain the major method of transmission of pathogenic bacteria, this study concludes that elevator buttons can be dangerous fomites that can harbor pathogenic bacteria from carriers as much as they can be dangerous fomites that spread serious agents of disease.