Real dirty talk about your filthy mobile device
Smartphones are filthy; here’s how to avoid getting sick
Smartphones are germ-laden and right next to your face. How to clean them and avoid getting sick.
What’s the one item that never leaves your side? It goes into the bathroom with you. You use it in the kitchen. It often touches your face, your desk and, well, just about any other surface within arm’s reach. ❚ It’s your smartphone, of course. And these are just some of the reasons it’s a breeding ground for germs and a cesspool of bacteria. ❚ Don’t take just our word for it.
Fecal matter can be found on 1 out of every 6 smartphones, according to a 2011 study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
“Mobile phones have become veritable reservoirs of pathogens as they touch faces, ears, lips and hands of different users of different health conditions,”
researchers said in a 2009 study of bacteria removed from personal phones.
A study by the University of Arizona found the typical worker’s desk, which tends to be your smartphone’s home for about 40 hours a week, has hundreds of times more bacteria per square inch than an office toilet seat.
Other studies have found serious pathogens on smartphones such as Streptococcus, MRSA – a type of bacteria that is resistant to several antibiotics – and even E. coli.
So why is your phone so nasty? “We touch more surfaces than any generation in history, from ATM machines to self-checkout counters,” said Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona. “So you’re picking up germs all the time on your hands and fingers, putting them on your cellphone and bringing them close to your nose, mouth or eyes.”
These germs can make you, your family and anyone else you come in contact with sick. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 80 percent of all infections are transmitted by hands, and our smartphones