MOULDIEST TRAIN

The next time you're riding the Jubilee line on London's Underground, you may want to wear a mask.

Daniel Henk, a researcher at the University of Bath, and his colleagues collected fungal cells lurking on the platforms at 12 stations from the system's three lines. They then compared these levels with those in a London hospital and in one of the city's parks.

The team concluded that people travelling on the Jubilee line inhale more fungal cells than those than who travel on the much older Central and Bakerloo lines.

The amount, they claim, is twice as much as you would get in the park and four times as much as in the hospital.

Henk told the New Scientist website he isn't clear why the Jubilee line is so mouldy but says humidity, the influence of other microbes, and how the underground stations are connected to the outside are possible factors.