Apr 25, 2008 11:00 pm US/Eastern
Health: Hidden Restaurant Danger
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
In health, when you head out to a restaurant, you might be getting more than a good meal. Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has details on a potential danger you might not know about.
Restaurant pagers are the new age way for busy restaurants to get in touch, while allowing customers to roam freely.
So convenient and efficient, they're passed from person to person, and the gunk can build up.
"It felt like my grandkids had it. Peanut butter and jelly all over it. That's what the feeling was. It was tacky," said Jack Osborne, with S2S Design in Sea Isle City.
So he headed straight for the bathroom to wash his hands.
"I see another guest come in take his pager and place it up on the urinal," said Jack.
There's no telling where those pagers go or who's been touching them.
"It's an unpleasant thought," said Dr. Daniel Meyer an Infectious Disease Specialist at Cooper University Hospital. He says germs are everywhere, hands being prime culprits for spreading filth. Just think about all the people handling the pagers.
"That's an easy way to spread things," said Burton Mark from Philadelphia.
"That's something I need to consider," said Donna Ragsdale from Philadelphia.
We randomly tested seven pagers from seven restaurants. Five tested positive for commonly found bacteria, including Bacillus circulans and Staphylococcus epidermidis.
"The next person who picks it up then they will acquire that same bacteria on their skin," said Dr. Meyer.
The paging systems are now also being used at local hospitals to get in touch with families and in the emergency room.
"Because we don't know what those patients may have and if they're coming in with infectious issues, they could potentially have something that they would then contaminate the pager with," said Dr. Meyer.
"That's gross. That's just truly nasty," said Donna.
To guard against germy pagers, Jack has developed a protective sleeve called PACOS, removed after each person handles it. He's now trying to get them in some popular restaurants.
"It protects the patron or a guest from one guest to the other of cross contamination," said Jack.
For now, the best protection is to wash your hands, especially after you handle a pager.
RELATED LINKS:
S2S Design
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