Hell, the Coke will probably kill whatever is on the lid before it even enters your mouth.

Same thing with Pepsi

Definitely not overkill. While I was in high school I worked for a beverage company. Most of us here are intelligent. Put together a mix of underpaid and under-trained forklift drivers and pallets full of soda cans and you are going to get breakage. The moisture in the soda evaporates leaving a sweet sticky syrup high in carbohydrates. Because soda cans are sealed they are not as strictly regulated on the presence of pests and vermin in their warehouses. In the morning when we turned on the lights hundreds of rats would scurry away. Bugs also love the stuff. The rats are what bother me though. Male rats leave a trail of urine wherever they go. If that happens to be across the top of your soda can why should it care. Occasionally when the rat droppings were bad enough they would have us pressure wash the top layer of cans on the pallet.

In case your wondering I haven't drank from a soda can since I worked there. Now if only they would make one to sterilize the disposable cups. Now that place is really nasty.

@Fuzvulf
Interesting stuff! I kind of want something like the Cole Cleaner now. I wonder if a UV cleaner would be enough to get you to drink from a can? Sounds like you saw too much.

Thanks for reading!

I remember when I was young and questioning everything in the big world I hated the fact that pop can openings got pushed into the can and therefore into the soda you were about to drink. I also didn't like the way you are drinking from the lid that was exposed to who knows what, not to mention all the dust that collected while it was in storage. I usually pay the extra cost for bottled drinks these days...

How much time do we need to wait before we can drink our soda?

Wow, this is like the hypocondriac's dream... seriously ppl, grow a pair. You can lick an average toilet seat and not get sick, reason being that it's a cold smooth surface, which bacteria have a hard time surviving on.

Certainly if their is visible debris or some residue you can fell on the can, rinse it off and let it sit out for a while. Anything that might have been able to grow in the muck on the can won't be able to survive for long on the can surface without protection.

I would also note that if this were REALLY an issue, don't you'd think you'd have heard of people getting sick and dieing from the bacteria on canned pop? Now... how often do you hear about people getting in car-accidents? Even just from your circle of friends, exclude stuff you hear on the news... ya, that's what I thought...

Drive safe!

"...this seems like a pretty extreme way to enjoy a soda."

For soda, sure...but, for beer? Hmmmm! :D