Yes that’s right; your mobile phone is much dirtier than your toilet handle. You might only see fingerprints on it, but the chances are that your phone might be harboring thriving colonies of bacteria and viruses.
Yes that’s right; your mobile phone is much dirtier than your toilet handle. You might only see fingerprints on it, but the chances are that your phone might be harboring thriving colonies of bacteria and viruses.
Cell phones are notoriously filthy. Fingerprints, dust, earwax nuggets and other visible grime is only the tip of the icky iceberg. Cell phones are home to more potentially harmful bacteria than doorknobs, computer keyboards, and even toilet seats.
According to a study by Stanford University students, a phone is covered with 18 times more germs than a toilet handle. This means that anyone who touches your phone will get your sickening germs as well.
The study that was published in July, found that:
If you put a virus on a surface like that of an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips. In turn, a fair amount of it may go from your fingers to your eyes, mouth or nose, the most likely routes of infection.
Hygiene expert Jim Francis took a sample of 30 phones and found that nearly a quarter of them had up to 10 times the acceptable TVC (Total Viable Count) of bacteria. One of the phones was infested enough to give a user a serious stomach problem.
The dirtiest phone had 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria and 170 times the acceptable level of fecal coliforms (which comes from poop). Just try to keep that in mind the next time you’re handling someone else’s cell phone to read an email or look at photos.
We frequently handle our cell phones, regardless of the state that they’re in. It shouldn’t be surprising to hear how infested they are with germs. We may be conscientious about washing our hands, but maybe it’s high time we started wiping our phones.