# Water fountain germs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 13, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416 "2020-03-13T15:31:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lacazet2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lacazet2k)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/1 "2020-03-13T15:31:12Z")
Just read a book called Did you Just eat That? by a Paul Dawson. In it, he discusses how many germs you can get by sharing popcorn, hand driers in bathrooms, etc.
he didn’t mention water fountains. I do use these, should I be worried?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/2 "2020-03-13T15:42:56Z")
No
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/3 "2020-03-13T15:53:33Z")
[Yes](https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/17/are-drinking-fountains-safe-to-drink-out-of/)
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/4 "2020-03-13T16:00:03Z")
> [@Grrr](#):
>
> [Yes](https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/17/are-drinking-fountains-safe-to-drink-out-of/)
Thanks for this. One thing it doesn’t address is that there are so many different kinds of drinking fountains. I would imagine some are better than others. (For example, the ones that worry me are the ones where the water pressure is so low, people are putting their mouths pretty much directly on the spigot to get a drink.)
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/5 "2020-03-13T16:17:03Z")
Oh, that’s ridiculous.
If there were any real problems, people would be dropping like flies.
It’s like those inane studies that show that there are bacteria on your sponge. Duh. There are bacteria _everywhere_.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/6 "2020-03-13T17:17:39Z")
I knew a guy years ago who liked to go to auctions and get “good deals”. He went to a public school where everything was being auctioned off and he bought some old water fountains.
He installed the water fountains in several locations at his business. _ **But** _ he had a nasty habit of constantly clearing his throat and bringing up “phlegm”. Once the fountains were installed, he’d deposit his phlegm in the bowl of the fountain as he walked by. Fucking disgusting.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/7 "2020-03-13T17:40:39Z")
If you run a cotton swab over your tongue then paint a Petri dish with it, the results are horrifying. Some people even manage to grow real human pathogens this way. Yet, mostly, we still don’t die.
We are made of tough stuff.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-fountain-germs/849416/8 "2020-03-13T17:58:16Z")
Noooooooooo! No water fountains. My germ phobia will not allow this. Nope.
(I had this phobia waaaaayyyy before the COVID thing, I hate to say this: But… I told you so!!)