When we put our fingers on a keyboard, we like to think it's clean.
But CTV News found a host of bacteria on keyboards, PIN pads and even ATMs -- and they gave some clear hints about just what had been in contact with the surfaces we touch every day, usually right before we eat.
Many bacteria were they type that is regularly sloughed off people's hands: many species of the bacteria staphylococcus, for example.
But the finding that surprised the experts the most tells us more about peoples' habits than we want to know -- on one surface, we found staphylococcus auricularis.
That's the bacteria that is commonly found in the human ear.
"I can guess how that got there," said Chad Born, the director of laboratories at Cantest, the company which provided the testing supplies.
Wearing surgical gloves and using professional swabs, CTV News went undercover to test the surfaces we touch every day -- usually right before we eat.
We tested public keyboards, the PIN pads at drive-thrus and the ATMs we use to access money before we buy.
We took a clean plate for comparison -- but it turned out that the more apt comparison was a toilet seat at the Vancouver Public Library.
The toilet seat measured at 430 bacteria, while one ATM was nearly there, at 400 bacteria -- on a fraction of the surface area.
But a university computer terminal at UBC's Student Union Building was almost four times as filthy, at 1600 bacteria.
And one restaurant's PIN pad was five times as dirty as the toilet seat, with 2100 bacteria found on it.
Tomorrow, we'll show you what else we found, and where.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Sarah Galashan and Jon Woodward
