[Nathans_Dad]

That's not really all that surprising. Employee goes to the bathroom, doesn't wash his hands, fills the ice machine, there you go.

It is a little interesting that the bacteria were so numerous considering that the water for the ice is chlorinated which should inhibit growth. I did a similar experiment in my college micro class where I plated swabs from drinking fountains and there was surprisingly little growth.

Our bodies are great seas of bacteria and humans are dirty animals. The sooner our society gets over this idea that bacteria are bad or dirty the better. Everyone wants to "sanitize" their kitchen or whatever.

Here's one that will blow your mind, some studies are suggesting that diseases like Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease may be because the food we eat is TOO clean. Perhaps we need a little dirtiness in our lives to keep things working well. The idea is that there are cells that live in the wall of the colon that are there to fight off infections. When we began sterilizing all our food and focusing on hygeine those cells never saw infections. They got bored. So, they decide to attack whatever the hell they like.

The dirtiest wound you can receive is a bite from a human mouth. Chew on that while you have your lunch.