I’ve seen people take their phones into a bathroom cubicle, hang out there for a few minutes (we all do it, stop giggling!) and then out they come. They wash their hands…but they don’t wash their phones. Obviously. So we’re happy to touch our phones while we’re sitting there (same bacteria, right?) but only make sure our hands are clean, and don’t give our phones a thought. I even use the paper towel with which I’ve just dried my hands, to open the door again. But then I just touch my phone again. That’s disgusting. We shake hands with people, we put our phones on the kitchen counter, someone else handles out phones to look at that cat meme we posted, and then we take the phone back and hold it against our faces to take a call. Yuck! So how dirty is your cell phone right now, at this very moment?
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, at the University of London, looked at cell phones in 12 cities in the U.K. They took 390 samples from cell phones and hands and then they checked to see just how dirty they all were. Are you holding onto your chairs? Out of the 390 cell phones analysed. 92% of phones had bad bacteria on it as did 82% of the hands tested. 16% of the phones had E. Coli bacteria on it. That comes from poop, people! And we put our phones down and spread those germs around some more. And now the grossness just continues. We keep our phones in our pockets or our bags, where it’s warm, and bacteria love it when it’s warm. They spread there. And then your phone rings and you put it against your face and it could touch your lips and….it’s too horrible to think about. No wonder facial skin is effected and we get sick and make others sick. We wash our hands often and shower or bath at least once a day; but do we ever clean our cell phones or their pouches or cases?
Check this out.
To stop this craziness, we need to wash our hands and our cell phones, regularly. And we should probably resist the temptation to sit and text on the toilet? The general consensus seems to be that we should take our phones out of their plastic or rubber covers, if we have them, and clean those under hot water, with lots of soap or antibacterial wash, or better still, replace them. And for the phones themselves, perhaps a wipe with a soft cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol or spirits. Oh and let me remind you again: Wash your hands! I’m still completely freaked out by all of this, and will struggle to see my phone the same way again!
Have you ever cleaned your phone? Did you ever consider that it could be making you sick because it houses those nasty bugs?