Many of us use our mobile phones every day, with some of us every hour however you may think twice in future when you realise what’s on your mobile. The handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a flush handle in a men’s toilet. Resent tests have found that a quarter of handsets were so dirty that they had up to ten times an acceptable level of TVC bacteria. Which is worry especially as many of us wouldn’t think twice about using our mobile phone while eating. Now although TVC is not immediately harmful an elevated level of TVC indicates poor personal hygiene which acts as a breeding ground for other bugs.
The tests were carried out by Which? Magazine on a sample of 30 handsets, and their findings suggest that 14.7million of the 63million mobiles in use in the UK today could be potential health hazards. Hygiene expert Jim Francis, who carried out the tests, said: ‘The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That phone needs sterilising.’ This mobile more than ten times the acceptable level of TVC of which seven were above the threshold, it 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. On top of that it also had 170 times the acceptable level of faecal coliforms, which are associated with human waste.
Ceri Stanaway, a Which? Researcher said: “’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.”