One in Six Mobile Phones Home for E. Coli: Study

Researchers in the UK have found that one in six mobiles show traces of fecal matter.

The London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine released a study in conjunction with the Queen Mary, University of London which suggests that Britons are not doing a good enough job of washing hands. Experts said the most likely reason for the potentially harmful bacteria festering on so many gadgets was people failing to wash their hands properly with soap after going to the toilet.

The world celebrated Global Handwashing Day on 15th of October. The study took samples from 390 phones in 12 cities. The researchers found that ninety-five per cent of participants in the study protested that they did wash and yet 9 out of 10 phones and 8 out of 10 pairs of hands are carrying bacteria. The ratio of phones – 1 in 6 – carrying E. coli matched the ratio of dirty hands carrying the bacteria. Thus 16% of hands and 16% of phones were found to harbor E. coli – bacteria of a fecal origin. Harmful E.coli (Escherichia coli) is associated with stomach upsets and has been implicated in serious cases of food poisoning such as the fatal O157 outbreak in Germany in June. Birmingham has the highest proportion of bacteria-ridden phones (41%) but the highest level of E coli contamination was found in London (28%).

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Tagged E. coli, mobile phone