14 DAY TRIAL // Although doctors and other health experts have yet to figure out exactly how harmful cell phones are to the human brain, one thing is for sure, their batteries are a real “death trap.” New studies show that the devices themselves carry numerous bacteria that can only live in that certain environment, but which are also capable of infecting humans and even causing their death. That is to say, when you're in a hospital bed and your immune system is weak, it may be the cell phone battery bacteria and microbes that deliver the final blow, and not the infection or contagious disease you are suffering from.
According to a new research conducted in several hospitals, 95 percent of all analyzed mobile phones retrieved from emergency rooms and intensive care units were tainted with at least one kind of bacteria, with most of them having even more. These organisms, usually harmless for humans, can wreak havoc inside the body when the immune system is down, due to other infections. What's even worse is that cell phones can also hold the drug-resistant, super-bug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), for which there is currently no treatment.
Health authorities warn all hospitals around the world to exercise extreme caution in preventing the spread of the bacteria, and to always employ hand sanitizers or alcohol wipes before staff members use their hands to take care of patients. In the US alone, 60 percent of all hospital infections are caused by MRSA, and the bacteria has killed 19,000 people in the country in 2005, while infecting an additional 94,000 patients. The thing is that the bug loves “hanging out” in hospitals, so the risks of getting it are really high if even the basic protective measures are not employed.
A simple way to ensure you remain out of harm's way is to wipe your cell phone at least when you're committed to the hospital and to leave it at home or also clean it very well when visiting one of these institutions, so as to avoid contaminating others. Statistics show that 35 percent of the infected cell phones present at least two kinds of bacteria, while 11 percent have three or more strains of potentially life-threatening ones on or inside them.
The new research has been conducted by Fatma Ulger, a scientist at the Ondokuz Mayis University, in Turkey, and has focused on the mobile phones of some 200 doctors and nurses working directly with patients.