I was rather taken aback to read that, according to Which? magazine in the UK, mobile phone handsets may carry many times more bacteria than the average toilet.
The average handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a flush handle in a men's toilet, tests have revealed.
An analysis of handsets found almost a quarter were so dirty that they had up to ten times an acceptable level of TVC bacteria.
One of the phones in the test had such high levels of bacteria it could have given its owner a serious stomach upset.
. . .
The most unhygienic phone had more than ten times the acceptable level of TVC and seven were above the threshold.
This worst handset also had 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria, a group of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of humans and animals and include bugs such as Salmonella.
It boasted 170 times the acceptable level of faecal coliforms, which are associated with human waste.
Other bacteria including food poisoning bugs e.coli and staphylococcus aureus were found on the phones but at safe levels.
. . .
Which? has previously found that some computer keyboards carry more harmful bacteria than a lavatory seat.
There's more at the link.
Alarmed by the report, a journalist swabbed various items around her home and sent them for bacteriological analysis. She chose things like a computer keyboard, the handle of the refrigerator, and a stuffed teddy bear. The results were equally dismal.
Having read those articles, I think I'm going to have to disinfect my phone once a week . . . not to mention fumigate the house now and again!
Peter
3 comments:
I fix cell phones for a living, I can tell you for sure that they are all dirty. I try and clean them and myself with alcohol and wash my hands several times a day. You would not beleive the makeup that gets caked into all the small cracks on the inside of the phone. Gross!
Wouldn't it be ironic if we did in fact all die from an unsanitized telephone handset?
Jim
Alternatively, view it as evidence that your immune system is the bulwark it should be in a world that is more full of bacteria than not. I've always said there are two basic responses to learning enough microbiology to reach a few epiphanies about how common pathogens are.
1)Carry Lysol. Everywhere. Use it at all times.
2)Stop caring, clearly the immune system is more than up to the task.
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