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Cars have transformed modern society, improving mobility and promoting independence, which is especially important with our ever-increasing distances between home, work, school, shopping and leisure facilities. A recent survey by the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety found that U.S. residents aged over 16 made an average of 2.5 driving trips a day - totalling 59 minutes - during 2019-2020.1 Add in journeys taken as a passenger in shared cars or cabs, and a significant amount of our time is spent in vehicles. This means that keeping them clean is an important consideration, especially with anxiety about cleanliness at an all-time high following the COVID-19 pandemic. One study even shows that the average steering wheel has four times more bacteria than a public toilet, suggesting that there really is cause for concern.2 Minimizing the colonization of bacteria, mold and mildew in vehicles not only prevents stains and odors, but it also keeps vehicles cleaner, helping to provide peace of mind to the occupants.
How Ditty is Your Car?
Microbes are small living organisms that are found all around us, and their ability to rapidly multiply in different environments makes them difficult to control. Bacteria, molds, fungi and algae in undesirable locations can cause surface stains, bad odors and reduce product life due to contamination or degradation (Figure 1).
Cars are exposed to many microbes that are carried in from the environment on drivers, passengers and shopping on a daily basis. This is multiplied exponentially in cabs and shared cars that regularly carry many different passengers,...