The cash machines serve as potential sources of spread of germs, as found by a new study. Remains of burgers and other eatables can often be witnessed on ATM machines that spread as many germs as public toilets.

The study led by Dr. Richard Hastings, microbiologist for antibacterial Company BioCote revealed that the machines that were examined had almost same level of infectivity as found in public lavatories. Hastings told that the bacteria that were discovered on the ATM machines were same as those, which were prevalent in public toilets and led to human illnesses.

The findings are based on the analysis of the swabs that were taken from the keypads of various city centre ATMs and from public toilet seats in England. On both the samples, commonly found bacteria - pseudomonades and bacillus were discovered that are associated with sickness and diarrhea.

The research also looked at the views of 3,000 people, who expressed that public toilets were the major source of spread of harmful bacteria and they gave second rank to phone boxes in this context.

"It's horses for courses. I imagine some people would be concerned about the cleanliness of the key pads, especially with illnesses like swine flu", said a spokesman for Watson Contract Cleansing Service in Bournemouth.