Microbiological Tests of Public Articles and Appliances in Public Places of Lu'an City, China, 2018—2019

Objective To investigate the result of microbiological tests of public articles and appliances in public places of Lu'an City, China, to evaluate the hygiene level of public places in this city, and to provide a basis for future hygiene supervision.

Methods An investigation was performed for the microbiological test result of public articles and appliances in the public places of Lu'an City from 2018 to 2019 to analyze the differences in the pass rates of samples of public articles and appliances from different public places.

Results A total of 4 109 public articles and appliances were tested in the 2 years, among which 3 949 were qualified, with a pass rate of 96.11%. The pass rates of samples in 2018 and 2019 were 95.32% and 96.91%, respectively, with a significant difference between the two years (P < 0.05). The pass rates of accommodation and hairdressing samples were 96.46% (2 865/2 970) and 95.17% (1 084/1 139), respectively, and there was no significant difference between the two groups of samples (P>0.05). According to the classification of public articles and appliances, there were significant differences in pass rates between the six types of public articles and appliances (P < 0.01). Towels, tea sets, and hairdressing tools had relatively low pass rates of 77.53% (414/534), 83.73% (139/166), and 84.38% (54/64), respectively. Among the public articles and appliances monitored, hairdressing tools and tea sets had relatively low 2-year pass rates of 94.76% and 94.55%, respectively, and there was a significant difference in 2-year pass rate between different types of public articles and appliances (P < 0.01). The pass rates of total bacterial count, coliform, and Staphylococcus aureus were 94.49% (617/653), 98.17% (964/982), and 98.88% (616/623), respectively, with a significant difference (P < 0.05).

Conclusion Articles and appliances in public places of Lu'an City have good hygiene status, while towels, tea sets, and hairdressing tools tend to have low pass rates, and therefore, hygiene supervision and guidance for such articles should be strengthened to improve hygiene quality.