We all love our mobile phones with many of us finding it hard to drop it for a second but after you read this, you might be dropping this faster in horror than you will think possible.
According to a recent study carried out in the US by Initial Washroom Hygiene, the mobile phone is at least seven times dirtier than a toilet seat.
Daily Mail reports that Initial Washroom Hygiene took samples from 50 phones to record the level of bacteria, using a device that lights up live microbes on the phone’s surface. While a scan of a toilet seat showed 220 spots of the bacteria, the average mobile had 1479, which is nearly seven times more.
Not only that, the study also discovered that phones in leather cases were home to the most bacteria, with even wipe clean plastic cases having more than a toilet seat.
It has been learnt that one major reason for the bacteria spreading is that 40 percent of mobile phone users take their phones with into the bathrooms. Initial Washroom Hygiene carried out a survey on 2000 people and only half of the number of participants cleaned them afterwards.
A 2017 study by the University of Arizona found even worse results as it showed it phones had 10 times more bacteria than toilet seats. It has been explained that the warmth of a phone screen also allows bacteria to thrive, which transfers to not only people’s hands, but also ears and face when someone puts one up to their head for a call.
While the likelihood of catching an illness from handling someone else’s phone is low, it is advised that the use of tissues, alcohol wipes or a professional phone cleaning kit can help reduce the germs, but most experts simply recommend basic hand hygiene.
