Bathtubs, Gyms and Playgrounds

• At No. 10 on the Health.com list compiled by "Dr. Germ" (otherwise known as Charles Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona) and his panel of experts: The place you go to get clean. Bathtubs and showers are breeding grounds for staphylococcus bacteria. A common cause of serious skin infections, the staph bug loves to hang out in moist conditions. At No. 9 are playgrounds for grownups. Health clubs can have antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus on exercise and yoga mats as well as cardio and resistance machines.
  
  The average children's playground makes the list of germiest places at No. 8. They are "breeding grounds," says environmental microbiologist Kelly Reynolds, caused by blood, mucus, saliva, and urine. Add the fact that children put their fingers in their mouths and noses more than the rest of us, "and you get a petri dish for infection."
  
  

Purses, ATM Buttons and Shopping Cart Handles

• Women may be shocked to learn that purses rank No. 7 on many lists of germiest objects, including the list complied by "Senior Living" magazine. Researchers have found that purse bottoms can carry tens of thousands of bacteria, and some purses contain bacteria in the millions. Bags carry salmonella, E. coli, pseudo-monas bugs (which can cause eye infections) and staphylococcus bacteria, which can cause skin infections.
  
  No. 6 appears to make getting cash hazardous to your health. According to environmental microbiologist Kelly Reynolds, ATM machines are loaded with germs and rarely cleaned. Only slightly more germy; shopping cart handles. The No. 5 germiest object isn't just pushed and jogged through stores; shopping cart handles get chewed on, spit up on and sneezed on by babies and small children.
  
  

Drinking Fountains, Wet Laundry and Airplane Bathrooms

• The No. 4 germiest objects; public drinking fountains and public wash room soap dispensers. In fact, the germiest of them are found in schools, where children, notorious for spreading all sorts of things, leave saliva, bloody noses and bacteria from coughs and colds on handles and spouts. Coming in at No. 3: wet laundry. Washing clothing in cold or lukewarm water, and washing underwear with regular clothes, can spread fecal matter and E. coli throughout the wet laundry and on hands that touch the wet laundry.
  
  No. 2 on the overall germiest list, and the most germy public space: Airplane bathrooms, where E. coli and fecal bacteria abound. The cramped spaces make it hard to wash hands and difficult not to touch anything. Just the act of flushing the toilet can launch the bacteria airborne unless there's a seat cover to close.
  
  

The Kitchen Sink is No. 1

• The No. 1 germ culprit, according to Charles Gerba, professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona: the kitchen sink. Contrary to popular belief, the quintessential kitchen sink can hold more germs than the toilet, including salmonella, campylobacter and E. coli. In fact, the typical kitchen sink is crawling with more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in the drain. And that doesn't even include the sink's basin and faucet handles.