Your filthy, smart, phone

Quick question in my best Peter Marshall voice:

"Americans grab this 47 times a day. What is it?"

No, Donald, not that.  It's your cell phone you're plucking out of the pocket all those times, and while you're doing so, you are touching something that contains more cooties than the men's room at the Trailways station.

"Because people are always carrying their cell phones even in situations where they would normally wash their hands before doing anything, cell phones do tend to get pretty gross," says Emily Martin, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Well, ewww. 

TIME magazine carried the story the other day, and it said that your cell phone is much dirtier than you think, and it just sits there getting all germy all day, and then you pick it up to text Tex or call Callie or face your Facebook and your hands pick up those germs and then you pick up your Caesar Salad Wrap and you see where this is going...

And they (the science community) knew we would come back demanding scientific evidence on all this, so they studied the cell phones of high school students and found more than 17,000 bacterial gene copies, and who knows how many original germs.

More?  OK. Sun-baked science guys and gals at the University of Arizona say cell phones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats.

All right, you have my attention. And pass the Purell. 

According to the article, "Human skin is naturally covered in microbes that don’t usually have any negative health consequences, and that natural bacteria, plus the oils on your hands, get passed on to your phone every time you check a text or send an email. 

These dedicated Germ Hunters have found serious pathogens on phones, like Streptococcus, MRSA and even E. coli. Just having this gunk on your Samsung won't necessarily put you out sick, but, really, who wants them around?  And let's say someone coughs on their cell and they are coming down with strep throat or the flu and then three minutes later they thrust their phone at you so you can see the pictures from Uncle Martin's cookout.  Guess who gets sick next.

But wait!  No need to toss that expensive Motorola into the dumpster! Martin says one good way to avoid the cooties is to leave the phone out of the bathroom environment altogether.  


And it wouldn't hurt to mix some water with rubbing alcohol in a 60/40 combination and dip a clean towel in it before wiping off the phone now and then. You don't want to spray cleaner right onto the phone.

Oh! And Ms Martin and everyone else says to wash your hands, too! A couple of times a day would be nice.