(MONEY Magazine) – America's insatiable demand for antibacterial products is now being embraced by the consumer-banking industry. MicroTouch Systems of Methuen, Mass. bonds a microbe-killing chemical to its ATM touchscreens to prevent the passing of bacteria among customers. But are ATM screens really veritable petri dishes of seething germs? Hardly. Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona, says there's no evidence that dangerous bacteria lurk on cash machines. That's lucky, since there's no way to identify the 10,000 "CleanScreens" now in use among the approximately 275,000 ATMs dispensing cash nationwide.

--ANDREA BENNETT