A British £5 note is exchanged hundreds of times during its lifespan and there are multiple opportunities for the note to become contaminated with bacteria.
The move from paper to polymer £5 notes was made due to the latter being seen as safer, stronger and cleaner.
The study on these polymer notes investigated the level of contamination and identified which microorganisms were present on the notes after several weeks of handling in real life conditions.
The results of the study show a lower presence of bacteria compared to the paper notes.
Wickham isolated similar types of gram positive bacteria from each of the nine £5 notes that were tested.
An article referencing this study was published by EPM and its sister publication Medical Plastics News on January 18.
Wickham Laboratories is a global pharmaceutical and medical device contract testing, research and consultancy company.