Acontaminated ophthalmic solutions represent a potential cause of avoidable ocular infection. This study aimed to determine the magnitude and pattern of microbial contamination of eye drops in out patient at the department of ophthalmology, at Baghdad national hospital, Iraq. Fifty four vials from the out patient clinic were obtained for microbial examination after an average use of 2 weeks. The dropper tip and the residual eye drop were examined for contamination. The specimens were cultured, the number of colonies counted, the organisms identified. Eight (15%)  out of 54 analyzed vials were contaminated , most bacteria identified belonged to the normal commensal flora of the eye. Isolated contaminants were Staphylococcus auereus, Micrococcus , Neisseria catarrhalis, Gram negative Rods, Candida albicans, and Staph epidermidus.The dropper tip was more often contaminated (n=5) than the residual solution (n=2) and only one vial showed acontamination of both the drop and the tip (n=1) . Our data show acontamination rate of 15%, which is in the medium range of data puplished on the contamination of eye drops elsewhere (0.07% to 35.8%). Key words : Microbial Contamination, Eye Drops

Cosmetic products contain variable amounts of nutrients that support microbial growth. Most contaminants   in   cosmetic   products   include bacteria such as Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella,   Achromobacter   and   Alcaligenes. Contaminated water  is  a  likely  source  of organisms found in cosmetic products. Products such as shampoo, hand and body lotion, facial cleanser,  and liquid soaps were analyzed. In this study, out of 60 cosmetic products analyzed, 26.4% were found to be contaminated.    Most of the contamination was from bacteria and no fungal contamination was detected.  The highest level of contamination occurred in shampoo.Viable bacterial were not recovered from 100%, 92.8%, 91.6% and 89.2% of showed bath soaps, facial cleanser, hand and body lotion and shampoos, respectively. Coliforms were recovered from one sample of shampoos. One isolate of shigella and pseudomonas aeruginosa was detected from two samples of shampoo. Keywords: Microbial contamination, cosmetic

One hundred items of 60 talcum powders and 40 body lotions were examined for their total aerobic bacterial, coliform and fungal counts. We also carried out anaerobic bacterial counts for talcum powder as well as tests to detect some potentially hazardous bacteria in all tested samples. Talcum powders were more heavily contaminated with bacteria than body lotions. More than 60% of the tested body lotions contained no viable bacteria or less than 100 C.F.U./gm, while 35% of the talcum powders contained this level. Five per percent of the talcum powder were contaminated with 104 C.F.U. /gm and none of the body lotions were contaminated to that extent. No coliforms were recovered from any of the body lotions, while 3.3% of the talcum powder examined contained coliforms in the range of 250-300 C.F.U/gm.Staphylococcus Spp. were detected in one sample of both talcum powders and body lotions. Two samples of talcum powder contained E. coli. Neither talcumpowder nor body lotions showed fungal counts. Also no talcum powder showed the presence of anaerobic bacterial counts.