Something You May Not Want To Know: Your Phone Is Dirtier Than A Toilet Seat

Do you really want to read this?

Brace yourselves… Mobile phones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats.

Shudder.

When is the last time we actually cleaned our mobile phones?

While toilets get cleaned quite frequently, because people associate bathrooms with germs for obvious reasons, mobile phones and other handheld objects, like your remote control, are often left out of the cleaning routine.

University of Arizona microbiologist Charles Gerba says mobile phones pick up germs all the time.

“I see people talk on their phone on toilets,” Gerba said. Although this makes us quite queasy, we would still like to ask where exactly this microbiologist was watching these people…

There are 3,055,920 germs living on your mobile phone now, that’s the equivalent of 611 toilet seats. Cue, you drop your phone in disgust.

However, it isn’t the amount of germs living on the phone that’s the problem, it’s the sharing of phones between people. Without sharing, each phone carries just one set of germs, and won't get its owner sick, Gerba said.

The problem with phones is that we're in constant contact with them, and they spend a lot of time in close proximity to our faces and mouths. And, because it's an electronic device, most people are hesitant about cleaning them.

This is also this case with remote controls, which, Gerba noted, are also often used by people when they're sick. Remotes are more frequently shared, too, so they're usually even worse than phones for spreading germs, he said.

Other common culprits that are hotspots of unseen germy guys include office phones, shopping carts and the first-floor buttons of elevators, he said.

To limit the spread of diseases from phones or other objects, try not to share them, or wipe them down with an antibacterial wipe if you do. While sprays might damage the equipment, a gentle wipe should do the trick, Gerba said.

We are on our way!