This is the gross reason you should never keep your festival wristband on once you get home
AFTER wallowing in the mud at Glastonbury you could be putting health at risk if you don't lose this memento
ARE you proudly sporting a muddy wristband from your weekend at Glastonbury?
Festival goers often hang on to the trophies of the summer’s best gigs as proof they were there.
But they could be paying with their health by refusing to take the scissors to their treasured mementos.
Music fans who are still wearing their wristbands weeks after the headliners’ stage has been packed away are harbouring a gross secret.
A study by Dr Alison Cottell, a microbiology professor from the University of Surrey, has revealed that cloth wristbands are hosting a bacteria festival of their own, right there on your arm.
The thin straps can contain 10,000 bacterial cells – more than 20 TIMES the amount of bacteria usually found on everyday clothes.
And the two main strains found can caused infections and even BOILS on the skin of the wearer.
The professor tested two wristbands worn for two years after the 2013 Reading Festival.
She found a dangerously high concentration of staphylococci and micrococci bacteria.
Although these are common on human skin, the rate of growth on the wristband saw them reaching a level where they could cause serious problems.
According to the study, the bugs can cause boils on the skin, infections in cuts and grazes and acute food poisoning.
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Dr Cotell said: “The amount of bacteria that grew on wristbands was about 20 times higher than you would expect to find on the sleeve of a piece of clothing that would be regularly laundered.
"Staphylococci are usually harmless although they can cause boils and infections of cuts and grazes, and can also cause a form of acute food poisoning if they are ingested.”
It’s not just your own health that could be affected.
The bacteria could also be passed on to others and cause them the same problem.
Therefore, anyone in the catering trade should immediately lose the bands, before returning to work.
But even if you have a partner who is too attached to the bands they picked up in the day, you could be at risk of infection.
So the advice is to hold on to the happy memories and give the wristband the snip.
