Legend has it that smartphones would be much dirty than toilet bowls. Should we believe this general maxim? Scientists gave their response.
Not a day goes without anyone deciding on the screen of our smartphone. Early in the morning at breakfast, in public transport, at work or at home … We use it in all situations and almost everywhere. And if the fingerprints and dust appear very quickly on the screen, they are not the only ones: other more discreet dirt also accumulate.
Our fingers, which retain all dirt and bacteria during the day, keep dirtying our smartphone without even realizing it. This is why it is not uncommon to hear some people say that a smartphone is even dirtier than the toilet bowl (where much use it). Should we believe this commonplace now very much spread in our society, or should we be wary of it?
The information seems solid: it spread after a study carried out in the early 2010s by The University of Manchesterwhich had detected 500 times more bacteria, microbes, or viruses on a smartphone than on a toilet seat and not far from 7000 different bacteria. Many are safe, but others, such as Escherichia coli, salmonella and other Streptococci, are much more disturbing.
Many other studies have confirmed it since, with other figures but an equally alarming observation, as work led by Egyptian scientists in 2015, by the University of Arizona or by a Group of Estonian researchers Analyzing the telephones of a group of students in 2017, by a committee for food health and people in 2019. All of them seem to indicate that a smartphone can contain an average of 10 times more bacteria than a toilet bowl.
In 2022, it is a other international study who worried about the use of smartphones by hospital staff in particular. More recently, the specialized journalist Bobby Caina Calvan assured in the Seattle Timmes that the screen of your smartphone could accumulate more than 25 000 Bacteria by inch, without unraveling information nevertheless. It’s three times more than a door handle (8 600 bacteria per inch) and twenty times more than a bowl of public toilets (1 200 bacteria per inch) in certain extreme cases, especially without any cleaning.
Scientists strongly advise against using your device when you are in the toilet, to avoid exposure to faeces, but also when you eat. Naturally, limit as much as possible to exchange your phone with another person, especially if the latter has not been washed your hands.
According to recent Belgian surveys And Germanaround 30 to 40% of users very rarely clean their smartphone (once a month). Dangerous behavior while a few seconds are enough to decontaminate your device. Turn towards a slightly vaporized microfiber cloth with 70%isopropylic alcohol, and voila! Repeat this action every week, at least.