Bacterial Contamination on Household Toys and Association with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Conditions in Honduras

Christine E. Stauber, Adam Walters, Anna M. Fabiszewski De Aceituno and Mark D. Sobsey
Additional contact information
Christine E. Stauber: Institute of Public Health, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3995, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
Adam Walters: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Campus Box 7431, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Anna M. Fabiszewski De Aceituno: Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 6000K Claudia Nance Rollins Building, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Mark D. Sobsey: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Campus Box 7431, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: There is growing evidence that household water treatment interventions improve microbiological water quality and reduce diarrheal disease risk. Few studies have examined, however, the impact of water treatment interventions on household-level hygiene and sanitation. This study examined the association of four water and sanitation conditions (access to latrines, improved sanitation, improved water and the plastic biosand filter) on the levels of total coliforms and E. coli on existing and introduced toys during an on-going randomized controlled trial of the plastic biosand filter (plastic BSF). The following conditions were associated with decreased bacterial contamination on children’s toys: access to a latrine, access to improved sanitation and access to the plastic BSF. Overall, compared to existing toys, introduced toys had significantly lower levels of both E. coli and total coliforms. Results suggest that levels of fecal indicator bacteria contamination on children’s toys may be associated with access to improved water and sanitation conditions in the home. In addition, the fecal indicator bacteria levels on toys probably vary with duration in the household. Additional information on how these toys become contaminated is needed to determine the usefulness of toys as indicators or sentinels of water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, behaviors and risks.

Keywords: E. coli; toys; fomites; household water treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/4/1586/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/4/1586/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:4:p:1586-1597:d:25116

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().