Mobile Phones: Still Filthy

from the yet-again,-huh? dept

Fri, Jan 19th 2007 5:20pm — Mike Masnick

Researchers just can't seem to resist stories that involve germ counts on today's technology. Three years ago, it was the story about how your computer is 400 times dirtier than your toilet seat. Then there was the story about how much bacteria are found on internet cafe mice. Last year, it was again about how your desktop has more germs than a toilet. This year, they're back with the latest version of such studies, and it has (once again) found that your mobile phone is pretty dirty. That's not a surprise. The real question is whether or not it's actually dangerous -- and of course, the study doesn't actually answer that question. Perhaps it's because it was sponsored by a mobile phone retailer who wants you to buy a new mobile phone to replace your filthy one -- without explaining that the new phone will probably get just as filthy pretty quickly (and still probably won't be all that dangerous). Of course, if you're really worried, why not just pick up a sterilizing phone charger?

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misanthropic humanist, 19 Jan 2007 @ 5:57pm

your germs are good for you
Nonsense. Unless you share your mobile phone its bacterial population are in sympathy with your own filthy (or very clean*) skin, and hence the antibody makeup of your own system.

Internet cafe mice and public phones, yes. But not your mobile phone.

* oddly people who overwash with anti-bacterials are at a higher risk of parasitic and dangerous bacterial infection. There is actually a naturally good level of dermal bacteria.
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dorpus, 19 Jan 2007 @ 6:33pm

Impetigo
Impetigo is a contagious disease you can catch from shared surfaces. Try a google image search on it -- if you haven't eaten recently, anyway.
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dorpus, 19 Jan 2007 @ 7:09pm

Don't press train buttons
In Tokyo, a 28-y.o. train conductor is being charged with obstruction of duty, because he developed a sexual fetish for the train's electronics. He repeatedly pressed the door-shut button with his dick, and licked the cables on other trains. The actions caused serious disruptions of the train system.

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/textoyx4/20070119
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Jane, 19 Jan 2007 @ 8:03pm

much ado about nothing
FOMITES: Did a college paper on them. Cultured the bacteria found on an ATM keypad, a public phone mouthpiece, and a water fountain spigot. The keypad was by far the dirtiest, but then it was outside of a McDonalds. None of the bacteria were harmful.

Yes, anything we touch with our hands generally has a higher bacteria count than things we generally touch with other parts of our body.

Most bacteria are beneficial to the skin because they prevent colonization of the skin by pathogens and they control the other organisms on the skin.
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misanthropic humanist, 20 Jan 2007 @ 10:01am

Re: Don't press train buttons
I think we're taking the "techdirt" theme a little too literally today.
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Warren Theriot, 20 Jan 2007 @ 8:25pm

dirty phone sterilizer/charger
To make a sterilizer for your cell phone, use an ozone producing
shortwave ultraviolet light in a small enclosure that blocks the light to the outside and your eyes. It will shut off the light when opening the lid to pick up the phone. The type of tube would be the type used in EPROM erasers.
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Still Another anonymous coward, 22 Jan 2007 @ 7:32am

Re: dirty phone sterilizer/charger
Or, you could have the charger heat the phone enough to... oh, wait a minute. This may already exist...

Actually, this is just another story of paranoia. Our learned intollerance for germs and mis-use of anti-germ agents may kill us before global warming. Get our bodies used to sterility, then hit us with even more powerful germs.
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Walter Dnes, 22 Jan 2007 @ 7:15pm

This is going too far
Let's ship all those wannabee mobile-phone cleaners off in a rocket to the farthest edge of the galaxy. And while we're at it, let's send all the hairdressers, middle managers, and marketers with them.
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