The West and Others

Mobile phones found to have more gems than a toilet seat

Next time you use you mobile phone, you might want to give it a little clean.

Researchers have discovered there are more bacteria on the average mobile than you will find in a toilet.

In tests there was up to 10 times the amount of bugs which can cause nausea and stomach problems than were present in a lavatory.

Experts said the reason is that phones are often passed between people which spreads the germs around - but they are never cleaned which means the diseases keep on building up.

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, said during his ongoing experiments he has found that bugs get onto a phone because it is so close to our hands and mouths.

When somebody lets a friend or a stranger use their mobile their bacteria easily gets onto the device too.

Professor Gerba added that because mobiles are electronic some people are reticent about cleaning them.

Phones are just not part of our cleaning routine whereas we should think about giving them a wipe with an antibacterial substance every now and then.
Professor Gerba is well known for his environmental germ theory in the household

Professor Gerba is well known for his environmental germ theory in the household

Previous research has found that other things we assume are clean are in reality rather disgusting.

British scientists discovered that cash machines have similar levels of pseudomonads and bacillus, bacterias which are known to cause sickness and diarrhoea, as they found in public toilets.

Computer keyboards are also five times dirtier than the average lavatory seat.

Researchers from Which? swabbed 33 keyboards for food poisoning bugs e.coli, coliforms, staphylococcus aureus and enterobacteria and found four were a potential health hazard.

One was even ‘condemned’ because it was so infectious.

Remote controllers have also long been known as the grubbiest item in hotel rooms as they are never wiped down.