July 2, 2019, 5:03 am | Read time: 2 minutes
Ball pits are fun. But the colorful balls are sometimes contaminated with dangerous pathogens, as a recent study found.
For children, ball pits are often the highlight. These pits filled with countless colorful balls are not only found in indoor playgrounds; they are also used in physical therapy. There, ball pits are used as therapy for children with sensory or motor impairments. However, as a research team from the University of North Georgia discovered in a new study, playing among the colorful balls can also make you sick. In an examination of six therapeutic ball pits from different clinical facilities, the scientists found that essentially every single ball is a breeding ground for bacteria.
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Each Ball Contaminated with Thousands of Bacteria
The researchers examined nine to fifteen balls from different depths in each pit. The result: 31 different types of bacteria and one yeast species. Among them, they found the pathogen Enterococcus faecalis, which can cause urinary tract infections and meningitis. “The bacterial colonization amounted to thousands of cells per ball, which presents an increased potential for the transmission of these organisms and thus an increased risk of infection,” the report published in the American Journal of Infection Control states.
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Ball Pits Are Insufficiently Cleaned
It was also found that the examined physical therapy clinics sometimes let weeks pass between cleanings—just the right amount of time for disease-causing microorganisms to reach levels that can make children sick. The number of pathogens on the individual samples varied significantly, which is attributed to the widely differing protocols for cleaning and maintenance. The researchers concluded that there is a greater need to clarify and establish cleaning standards for ball pits to reduce the risk of infection.