Roll your kids on the subway floor, parents! Science says it’s good for ’em

Remember that recent study that found roughly 600 different types of bacteria on the New York City subways?

Well apparently most of those bacteria are perfectly harmless and some even postulate that they could be beneficial.

“I would advise any new parent to roll their child on the floor of the New York subway,” Chris Mason, the author of the subway-pathogen study recently said at a public event.

What Mason is hinting at is the hygiene hypothesis which contends that exposure to germs at a young age can help strengthen the immune system of a child.

“Some research has suggested that the idea could partially explain why children who grow up around animals and in rural areas appear to develop conditions like asthma less often than children who don’t,” Business Insider explains. “And even for people other than young children, the hygiene hypothesis makes intuitive sense: After all, literally every surface in the world is covered in bacteria. The idea that things can be “perfectly clean” is a myth — humans need bacteria to live.”

So there you have it, parents of New York City. Roll your children like a bowling ball on the floor of the subway! They’ll thank you when they’re older and disease free.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.