Dirty Phonecall

According to a recent study by Which?, your personal mobile phone might be the filthiest thing you can think of. After hygiene expert Jim Francis swabbed and analyzed 30 phones, 7 of them were considered dirty enough to have warning or high levels of environmental bacteria (TVC). These are not directly harmful, but could form a base and act as a breeding ground for further bacterial invasion. Put bluntly, mobile phones could harbor on average 18 times more living bacteria than a toilet flusher.

One particular phone had such astronomically high levels of harmful bacteria that it could easily give its user an upset stomach. Researchers actually found traces of faecal Coliforms on one device, as well as Enterobacteriaceae, which include bugs like Salmonella. In an effort to jump-start the movement of clean phones, the group suggests washing your hands regularly and occasionally cleaning your phone with a dry alcohol wipe.