If you thought fast food cheeseburgers and fries were bad for you, take a closer look at the ice cubes. Twelve-year-old Jasmine Roberts of Tampa, FL did just that with disturbing results. In a supreme feat of pre-adolescent scientific discovery, Roberts concluded that the ice at five local fast food restaurants is laden with bacteria. Lots of bacteria.

Roberts took ice samples (found in self-serve dispensers and in pre-poured drinks) from the restaurants as well samples of toilet water from each establishment.

The toilet bowl water was cleaner 70 percent of the time.

I repeat, the toilet bowl water was cleaner 70 percent of the time.

Roberts was even shocked at the results. “I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much. And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner,” she told Tampa Bay Online [1].

Among the bacteria found in the ice was fecal coliform or E. coli [2], which stems only from the feces of warm-blooded animals.

[Tampa Bay Online [3] via MSNBC [4]]

Image: sptimes.com