One in six mobile phones contain E coli

[Celefin]

Source: Guardian

One in six UK mobile phones are contaminated with faecal bacteria due to poor personal hygiene, scientists have found.

Researchers said that 16% of the devices were contaminated with E coli, which can cause food poisoning,
most probably because people fail to properly wash their hands after going to the toilet.
The study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London,
also found that Britons tend to lie about their personal hygiene.

While 95% of the 390 people surveyed said they washed their hands with soap where possible,
92% of mobile phones and 82% of hands were contaminated with bacteria.

The study, which took samples from 390 phones in 12 cities, raises serious public health concerns
as it found that 16% of hands and the same proportion of phones were contaminated with E coli.
A virulent strain of the bacterium has recently been implicated in the fatal outbreak of food poisoning in Germany in June.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/13/mobile-phones-uk-e-coli

---

*shudder*

[TwilightGardener]

1. 8% of cell phones are sterile? How is that possible?

[canetoad]

12. Nah, probably

Tuberculosis, influenza, plague, tetanus and syphillis ridden, but free of E-Coli.

[Lance_Boyle]

23. Must be all that evil radiation...

}(

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. What a crappy deal. n/t

[Wait Wut]

3. It's probably more from the people who use their cells IN...

...the toilet.

Seriously. I can't tell you how many times some idiot in the next stall is talking on her cell. :eyes: If you can't wait 2 minutes to tell Candi that you saw Joe kissing Missy in the parking lot, your life is worthless.

[Celefin]

19. Thank YOU!

That comment made my day for some reason :)

>>>
If you can't wait 2 minutes to tell Candi that you saw Joe kissing Missy in the parking lot, your life is worthless.
<<<

What a great slogan that would make.
Thanks for the laugh!

[queenjane]

22. I see people put their phones ON THE STALL FLOOR

Right between their feet while they're sitting, alongside their coffee cups. (Gag.) T leave them there while they flush a toilet with no lid, so all those microscopic germs spray the phone & cup. Sometimes there's also paperwork for meetings laying there.

Did I mention these people are doctors? Who should know better??

There's a reason I keep a big pump dispenser of hand disinfectant on my desk and use it liberally. Everything these docs hand me is just . . . ugh.

[kestrel91316]

4. This is NEWS? Seriously?

Dear Guardian: Let me buy you a clue or three. Bacteria are part and parcel of our world. You would be hard pressed to find anything other than literally sterile products inside impervious packaging that is free of bacteria. And where there are bacteria, there are frequently human commensals. To find human commensal bacteria on objects handled all day long by humans is nothing noteworthy in the least.

Our world is dirty. We can make it somewhat less so by frequent handwashing with hot, soapy water, but we can not obtain nor should we seek a world free of commonplace bacteia. They are literally a part of the human ecosystem and serve to train our immune systems how to behave.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. +1000

"To find human commensal bacteria on objects handled all day long by humans is nothing noteworthy in the least."

Reality-based commentary.

[kestrel91316]

17. It's that undergraduate degree in microbiology that gave me perspective.

[Psephos]

15. good post n/t

[Celefin]

21. Well, yes and no. It shouldn't be.

The article doesn't say anything about sterilizing everything.
And the actual STUDY definitely didn't say anything about that, as of course, this would
be stupid as you rightly say. And directly counterproductive, creating weak immune systems and multi-resistent bacteria.

But removing traces of fecal matter containing high amounts of E.Coli from your hands after going to the toilet is NOT stupid or superfluous.
E.Coli is not harmless in any way when ingested. Of -course- it will be present everywhere where humans are present.
But that doesn't equate to spreading it actively being a good idea.

And this study only looked for E.Coli. Not for parasite eggs from fecal matter.
Because that's where it gets really disgusting.
I caught threadworms twice while spending a year at Bangor University, Wales.
That's never happened to me before or after.
I'd say 60-70% of people there never washed their hands when they went to the toilet
and proceeded to eat crisps and drink coke while using the library computers. It was disgusting, really.

Analyzing those sticky keyboards should be any microbiologist's or parasitologist's dream.
You get to see the viruses, bacteria and parasites of a hundred countries all in one place.

[slutticus]

6. Shitty reporting.

Fecal E. coli doesn't cause food poisoning.

[sce56]

7. Reminds me of the joke

The Soldier and the Marine were in the latrine while waiting to catch the MAC flight home on leave The Marine finishes zips up and goes to wash his hands the Soldier finishes zips up and heads to the door. The Marine looks at him and says in Boot camp we were taught to wash are hands after using the head! The Soldier looks at him and says in basic we were told not to piss on our hands, and walks out.

[Divine Discontent]

8. well, that stinks! no more borrowing a cell phone for me! LOL

"hey, Ma'am, can I borrow that iphone? oh, wait, you washed your hands after you let a load out, right?"



Get it here now, or one of a million other designs! http://www.zazzle.com/republicans_2012_keeping_millions_out_of_work_bumper_sticker-128659602907896843?rf=238107662556833486eping_millions_out_of_work_bumper_sticker-128659602907896843?rf=238107662556833486

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. Is this what they call "butt-dialing"? nt

[AndyTiedye]

10. Time to Call in the Telephone Sanitizers!

[24601]

11. Always room for another unelected, unconfirmed Czar breathing

valuable White House oxygen. Make way for the Unsanitized Cell Phone Shit Oversight Authority! There ought to be a few plum jobs there. Maybe Biden could handle it if only to keep him away from the microphones.

[zogofzorkon]

13. If you cook them to an internal temperature of 165F they are safe to eat

[Downwinder]

14. Organic plastic cases?

closer to artificial life forms all the time.

[left on green only]

16. At least cell phones are largely a personal item

Everything stated in the topic article is nothing compared with what we are exposed to every time that we select a shopping cart to push around in the grocery store. The people who use the carts before us put their screaming little monsters into the cart's child seats while they are wearing their fecal infested diapers, which transfer the E coli bacteria of their sacred ones onto the seats of the carts, and then in turn to the cart's push handles. Would any of you like to know what percentage of grocery cart handles in a cross section of American grocery stores were found in a recent survey to contain the E coli bacteria? The survey's results were enough to cause an average person to hurl in the produce isle of most grocery stores.

Thankfully, most grocery stores in California now provide disinfectant moist towel wipes at the entrance to their stores which enable customers who are educated about this health hazard, and who care enough to take the time to disinfect the handles and the child seats of the carts that they select to use. But how many times have we been in a hurry and have just tossed a bunch of bananas (sans plastic produce bag) into the empty child seat of the cart that we were in too much of a hurry to have wiped down before we began to shop? I'll bet you all thought it was just a random case of the flu when you got sick a couple of weeks ago and had to stay at home from work for a week.

[rayofreason]

18. Mine has yersinia pestis.

Or maybe it is yesinia pestis.

[lunatica]

20. Which shows that the human species has resistance to a lot of bacteria types

It depends on the concentration. Some salt on your food is harmless and good for you, but if you decide to empty a lb of Morton's Salt into your mouth and swallow it you will have an adverse reaction.