mumbai a civic public health departments survey has found that ice served at hundreds of hawkers and restaurants across the city is contaminated with ecoli microbeswe conducted a survey in march and april and found that 67 and 72 ice samples respectively were contaminated said dr padmaja keskar civic executive health officer the only silver lining is that a similar survey conducted just before last years monsoon found that 92 of the ice samples were contaminatedduring last years survey a total of 948 samples of ice were collected from across the city of which 870or 92 were found contaminated the samples were picked up from ice sellers hotels bars juice stalls dairies sweetmeat shops icegola vendors and fast food outlets among others we mainly check for ecoli as it is indicative of contamination dr keskar explainedecoli can cause diarrhea and gastroenteritis ice is transported from ice factories in an unhygienic manner leading to contaminationthe bmc will continue its survey of ice over the next couple of months due to the summer heat people prefer to order iced drinks at restaurants and roadside hawkers it is a health hazard to consume such drinks dr keskar warned it is safer to carry a water bottle from home instead of consuming such iced drinks she addedthe bmc has also written to the the state food and drug administration to take action against vendors and eateries that serve contaminated ice