I have isolated Staph. epidermidis and Staph. haemolyticus from a
     water sample taken from a "washing machine" that utilizes deionized
     water.  The washing machine heats the water and we usually recover
     less than one CFU/ml.  This time we recovered 8.4 CFU/ml and
     identified the organisms above.  The tech who ran the test doesn't
     believe it's a contamination from the test or sampling method.  Do you
     have any ideas where the contamination may have come from?  I know S.
     haemolyticus is ubiquitous, but isn't Staph epi just a human
     contaminate?  I'd appreciate any thoughts.

     MaryAnn


------------------
The PMFList (http://microbiol.org/pmf.htm) is operated from
The Microbiology Network (http://microbiol.org) and supported by
our sponsors (http://microbiol.org/sponsor.htm) as a service to
the scientific community.