Alert over E.coli in washing machines

ALMOST one in five adults is putting themself at risk of potentially deadly infections because they fail to clean their washing machines.

New research shows 44 per cent of the nation’s laundry machines are laden with the E.coli bug which can cause serious health complications including kidney failure.

Expert advice warns the bacteria and others like staphylococcus aureus and pseudomonas aeruginosa are present in the many people’s laundry.

Kim Woodburn from How Clean Is Your House? says this is down to people not cleaning their washers.

She added: “The problem is that people do not clean their appliances at the right temperatures.

“To save money many people will consistently wash at 30 or 40 degrees but by doing this all the time runs the risk of bacteria building up.

“Depending on how often you use your washing machine you need to occasionally wash it on as much as 90, because 30 is inadequate, it will not clean it out.”

Applicance repair firm GlotechRepairs.co.uk quizzed 2,000 Britons about how often they clean their domestic gadgets such as washing machines.

However, less than 20 per cent of those surveyed said they follow the recommended once a month washing machine clean.

More than half the of respondents said they clean their machine every few months or less.

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