Nasty. Working in a busy office means we think nothing of sharing earphones when in a rush but after today's discovery, that is a thing of the past. Buzzfeed spoke to Kelly Reynolds, professor of Environmental Health at the University of Arizona, an expert on all things bacteria and she had some rather frightening things to say about the earphone situation. Breaking it down, wax isn't a major issue with Reynolds describing it as a "byproduct" that our ears produce to combat bacteria and germs. The main problem is that earbuds attract a lot of dirt and grim stuff on a day to day basis and this problem only multiplies when sharing earbuds. GROSS (Via GIPHY) Kelly explained that studies have shown that use of earbuds can cause bacteria to multiply as much as 11 times, within your ears. Now if that's not enough to stop you sharing earbuds, we don't know what is. Earbuds can increase bacterial growth too because of the hot and moist conditions within your ears, which increases twofold when at the gym. There is a simple solution though and that is to clean your earphones on a regular basis and avoid sharing them.