There’s a reason why no one seems very friendly on the journey to work: they are probably worried about faecal bugs on fellow commuters’ hands.

A study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found one in four commuters have faecal bacteria on their hands, and that number increases the further north you go.

Northerners' hands up to three times dirtier than those living in the south, with Newcastle workers the biggest offenders: nearly half have the bacteria on their hands. This compares to 13 percent in London, 23 percent in Birmingham, 24 percent in Cardiff and 34 percent in Liverpool.

The Dirty Hands Study was conducted in order to provide a snapshot of the nation's hand hygiene habits, as part of the world's first Global Handwashing Day today. Commuters' hands were swabbed at bus stops outside five train stations around the UK: Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Euston and Cardiff.

In Newcastle and Liverpool, men were more likely than women to show contamination with 53 percent of men compared to 30 percent of women in Newcastle, and 36 percent of men compared to 31 percent of women in Liverpool. In the other three centres, the women's hands were dirtier.

Almost twice as many women than men in Cardiff were found to have contamination, 29 percent compared to 15 percent, while in Euston they were more than three times likelier than the men to have faecal bacteria on their hands where the men here registered an impressive six percent, compared to a rate of 21 percent for women).

The bacteria that were found are all from the gut, and do not necessarily always cause disease, although they do indicate that hands have not been washed properly.

Dr Val Curtis, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "We were flabbergasted by the finding that so many people had faecal bugs on their hands. The figures were far higher than we had anticipated, and suggest that there is a real problem with people washing their hands in the UK. If any of these people had been suffering from a diarrhoeal disease, the potential for it to be passed around would be greatly increased by their failure to wash their hands after going to the toilet."