Keep that bottle of Purell handy for your iPhone or Droid display is a germ magnet, says a recent Stanford University study. Phone displays attract viruses and transfer it to finger tips, says the study.
“About 20 to 30 percent viruses transfer to the glass from someone’s fingers and about the same will transfer to a fingertip on contact,” Tim Julian, a doctoral student at Stanford who recently published a paper on the transfer of virus between finger pads and glass surfaces told Wired.com
Other researchers have shown that a similar amount, and possibly more, can go from the fingers to nose and lips. On average, people touch their lips or mouth around 10 to 25 times in an hour.
It’s not the first time cellphones have been shown to be germ-infested. In 2007, British mobile phone retailer Dial-a-phone swabbed objects such as toilet seats, keyboards and the bottoms of shoes and analyzed the bacteria in them. When compared with mobile devices, they found the average mobile phone contained more bacteria than a toilet seat.
The Sacramento Bee quotes an unspecified British study to say mobile phones harbor 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle in a typical men’s restroom.
Julian’s research, which was published recently in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, didn’t go that far. But, he says, it is clear that the viruses transmitted through displays have the potential to harm, though the risk remains low.
During the flu-season though, cellphone users may not be as much at risk because influenza and common cold are largely airborne.
There’s one way to stave off the germs: Washing hands before touching the screen can help reduce the amount of virus transmitted from and to the display, says the study.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
[via The Sacramento Bee via Engadget]