WATCH: McDonald's Playlands Are 'Absolutely Disgusting'

Mother of four and developmental psychologist Erin Carr-Jordan has videotaped more than 50 playlands from fast food restaurants such as Burger King, Chuck E. Cheese's and McDonald's. Her results are not pretty. She sent samples from one location to a lab, which discovered 13 different pathogens that are able to cause disease in children--coliform, four different kinds of staph, likely meningitis and gonorrhea, and more.

Watch Carr-Jordan's tour of the contaminated areas below and learn more about the corporations' responses at the Los Angeles Times.

[Via Zagat]

Comments

[Becky Hilgenberg]

02:59 PM on 07/21/2011

The Mcdonald's that my kids used to go to power washes its playland equipment at least 1 a month.

[Sinned39]

10:09 AM on 07/19/2011

NEWSFLASH!!!

Life is not a sterile activity.

BOOM!!

[Undettered]

10:27 PM on 07/16/2011

This reminds me of similar tests I ran during a University Biology class. We analyzed the soil in some twenty urban community gardens, used mostly to help feed and train low income families to be more self sufficient. Our lab analysis came up with exactly the same types of bacteria and pathogens in the soil including but not limited: coliform, staphylococcus ,meningitis, gonorrhea, syphilis, etc. Also all samples contained high levels of: Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Cesium 137, Iodine 131, Strontium 90, Radium, Thorium 233, PCB's and other complex hydro-carbon chemicals. Any one of these pathogens and contaminants pose a sever threat to children and adults. Clearly the only way to protect the children is to allow only the use of Monsanto approved GMO foods supplied through government regulated large food distribution centers.

[benja6888]

12:07 PM on 07/16/2011

Hey lets get the government to do something about the fat factory with a chemical waste dump that we take our children to and let them play in. It's your own fault if your kid gets sick or fat from mcdonalds. If you didn't know that was a risk before....meet Charles Darwin.

[benja6888]

11:56 AM on 07/16/2011

How many cases of death or disease is this actually causing? I haven't heard of very many child ghonorrhrea cases....These places have always been disgusting and now all of the sudden people are appalled because someone made a video and put scientific words to it? Exposure to germs has always gotten a bad rap, but reality is that it exists everywhere and you can't regulate everything. Instead of begging the government to do something about it, vote with your dollar/common sense and stop letting your kids play there. I'm a liberal, but god I get annoyed when people bitch at the government to do everything.

Ps-its also science that limited exposure to germs/pathogens (as in one day at the play place in McDonalds) can also help the human body (as in the constantly adapting, germ responding, self regenerating phenomenon) build up immunities or at least tolerance to certain diseases. If you baby it, it will defend itself like a baby.

[Ron Phillips]

03:20 PM on 07/16/2011

Nice rant, but when a kid does get sick you have no idea how or where they contracted the illness.

These are businesses, they're making money off of these play areas. They won't voluntarily clean them. Its a textbook example of a need for government regulation. The health department inspects the kitchen, is it so far fetched that maybe they should also check out the areas customers are in?

[benja6888]

04:37 PM on 07/16/2011

As far as I knew, these play areas are free for children to play on. Not a lot of revenue there, but that's beside the point. My point is that you cannot regulate every germ that comes in contact with any human being in a public place. It is impossible. Don't let your kids in these play areas if they look gross, they're avoidable and it would save our government money. Ask not what your government can do for you....etc etc. Put up a video on hp chronicling how gross it is, file complaints with the corporations, go on the today show and talk about it....PLEASE continue to do these things, because it helps educate our society. It's just not in the government's jurisdiction and doesn't need to be, we have common sense.

[kokobell616]

06:52 AM on 07/16/2011

What is wrong with a warning placed so that people that let the lil kiddies play there know that they are playing in petri dish.

[benja6888]

11:57 AM on 07/16/2011

Because people need the government to do everything.

[Ron Phillips]

03:22 PM on 07/16/2011

Yeah, darn government, inspecting restaurants to make sure they're not making us sick. Why, let the free market and frequent cases of food poisoning handle it.

Or, realize that these businesses won't clean these areas on their own; that the cost of cleaning them is not that much, and given the health implications worth it. And add a health department reg that these play areas should get cleaned a couple of times a month.

[Undettered]

10:34 PM on 07/16/2011

Kind of like the Prop 65 labels here in California reminding people not to pro-create in parking garages and not to eat food because it might contain high levels of Mercury or eat Brazil Nuts because they contain high levels of Thorium and not to eat Bananas because of they may contain Potassium 40, and my fishing pole because it might contain substances found to be harmful, and that label on my new Prius that tells me that the lead tire weights, motor oil, bearing materials, plastics used in the interior and the lithium in the battery pack and the coolants and brake fluid is toxic... after a while it becomes justanotherwarninglabel that no one reads. Kind of like Aesop's fable lesson "The Shepherd Boy Who Cried Wolf"

[ButterFlyGirlFly]

03:12 AM on 07/16/2011

There is no cleaning that play area, it should be taken down and thrown out. So if the play area was that bad, then the bathrooms, dining room and the kitchen & prep areas must be about the same as the play area.

[benja6888]

12:02 PM on 07/16/2011

The play area should be taken down. The rest of your comment is a gigantic stretch and generalization. Thats like saying, my neighbors don't wash their car so I assume their house is messy too. People and places have priorities and they attend to them accordingly.

[ButterFlyGirlFly]

03:23 PM on 07/16/2011

Neighbors are not going to have a hundred kids in one day running through the house on any day, if bathrooms and dining rooms are dirty in any business it is usually a clue.

[WingedWolfPsion]

01:33 AM on 07/16/2011

Oh, come on. The last thing we need is more regulations. If the McDonald's play place is hazardous for kids, then take them to court over it. It's not as though they aren't required to keep the place safe. Cleaning regulations are something they'll implement themselves after they get in enough hot water for the consequences of not cleaning the things. We already have regulations in place to handle this issue, they just need to be applied properly.

[MNTamara]

06:21 AM on 07/16/2011

The only problem with that is that a child must have damages for it to be an issue for the courts to act on it. Which child would you recommend be damaged for the changes to take place?

[Ron Phillips]

03:23 PM on 07/16/2011

And then you'll complain about frivolous lawsuits.

Bonus: in order to sue, you have to show harm. Which means you have to prove your kid got sick from that play area, and not from something else. Good luck with that.,

[Axlotl]

10:06 PM on 07/15/2011

Hot tip for Doc Carr-Jordan - you've got OCD and probably need to be on meds, if you're not already. Every, and I mean every, public surface has trace amounts of those pathogens your lab found. Shopping carts, bank pens, doorknobs, ATM keypads... you name it, it's got staph, strep, E.coli, and some other bugs on it, because your skin is covered with it 24/7. They're called commensals, and they live on you, no matter how frantically you scrub and scrub. ...Pleasant dreams!

[skantea]

09:45 PM on 07/15/2011

What''s with all the naysayers? Meningitis is not a joke. This is what she gets for trying to help people?

[swingerofbirches]

09:38 PM on 07/15/2011

McDonald's needs to hire this woman to clean the playground. I think she has found her true calling in life. She clearly seems to have lost interest in child psychology, and has found her true passion in detailing every microbe of a play structure.

I can think of no one better to clean the structure than someone who has studied it for months!

[TLTD]

07:54 PM on 07/15/2011

Don't touch anything or lick the floor anywhere you might get sick. Especially don't go outside in the yard, all kinds of dirt and bugs and things. Get a bubble to be safe.

[BrandoLives]

07:00 PM on 07/15/2011

This is the lady who calls the cops on your party and writes her congressman to ban sliding boards in playgrounds.

[Don Giovanni]

10:29 AM on 07/15/2011

Regulations! Oh, the Republicans will never get behind THAT idea.

[Edward Standley]

10:09 PM on 07/14/2011

Just one more reason.