Study shows just how dirty some of these devices can get

Jul 28, 2010 19:31 GMT  ·  By
Cell phones can have high levels of bacteria, even more than a toilet handle, study reveals
   Cell phones can have high levels of bacteria, even more than a toilet handle, study reveals

Many people see a toilet handle as probably the germiest, grossest place ever and, in some cases, they may be right. This is precisely the premise that consumer group Which? started from in its most recent study, meant to show how cell phones can become 18 times more infested with bacteria than said handle, the Daily Mail reports.

So far, we’ve learned that many objects we use on a daily basis (say, like the computer’s keyboard, or the dishcloth or the sponge we use in the kitchen) can get so filled with bacteria that they actually pose a threat to our health. Now, we can expand that list to include an item we probably assumed was very clean: our mobile phone. Based on the study conducted on a sample of 30 phones, in the UK alone, perhaps 14.7 million of the 63 million mobiles in use can be potential health hazards.

“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,” the Mail writes of the findings of the study.

The phone that ranked highest was so infested with bacteria its owner could only get rid of it by having it sterilized. However, since that’s not a possibility, there are ways of preventing our phone becomes a danger to our health: and we should start by making sure we never use it when our hands are dirty, or offering it to someone who forgot to wash their hands after using the toilet or even eating. On average, the levels of bacteria present on a phone are not high enough to pose a serious risk – yet it’s a risk we’re talking nonetheless.

“Most phones didn’t have any immediately harmful bacteria that would make you sick straight away but they were grubbier than they could be. The bugs can end up on your hands which is a breeding ground and be passed back to your phone. They can be transferred back and forth and eventually you could catch something nasty. What this shows is how easy it is to come into contact with bacteria. People see toilet flushes as being something dirty to touch but they have less bacteria than phones. People need to be mindful of that by observing good hygiene themselves and among others who they pass the phone to when looking at photos, for example,” Ceri Stanaway, researcher for Which?, says for the Mail.

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