Test results showed the presence of Bacillus cereus -- a bacteria that can cause foodborne illness -- on the surfaces inside the Playland of a McDonald's on Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis. Dr. Erin Carr Jordan -- the woman testing Playlands and similar facilities across the country -- has alerted health officials at the City of Minneapolis and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of her results.

"It's not a common bug," she said. "Whenever that one comes up, it's a big red flag."

Carr Jordan is a professor at Arizona State University, but her expertise is in psychology, not microbiology. Her concern and advocacy over the cleanliness of Playlands came after seeing one in Arizona and being dismayed. A colleague at Arizona State is assisting in interpreting the test results, she said.

In general, Carr Jordan said said test results in the thousands are proof that surfaces aren't being cleaned well enough to protect children from potential infections. In the case of the McDonalds in Minneapolis, one swab test turned up 60,000 bacterial colonies per square inch of Bacillus cereus. Her testing also found 340,000 bacterial colonies per square inch of a less harmful bacterial strain. That was far from the worst reading. A swab of a Playland in Sacramento showed bacterial counts in the millions. Carr Jordan said she typically swabbed two sections at each play facility -- one where children might place their hands and another that is used as a foothold.

"What we found in every single city and state is at least a minimum of one opportunistic pathogen ... in every single play structure," she said. An opportunistic pathogen, she explained, is a bacteria or other organism capable of causing disease. While it is mostly involved in foodborne illnesses, it is capable of causing skin or eye infections.

In all, Carr Jordan visited seven states this summer -- incorporating her testing into a family vacation. She swabbed surfaces in late July at the Minneapolis McDonalds as well as a Chuck E Cheese in the metro area. She is posting results and responses from fast food corporations on Facebook. She posted video clips of her visits to the Minneapolis play facilities as well.

State and local health departments have generally told Carr Jordan that their hands are tied because they don't have regulatory authority over indoor play facilities at restaurants. Carr Jordan hopes her work will compel lawmakers to create regulations over the cleanliness of these facilities.