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Study: 1 in 6 Cell Phones Contaminated With Fecal Matter

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That's right, poop — on your phone. If it's on your phone, it's very likely on your hands too, say researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London.

Researchers analyzed 780 swab samples — 390 from mobile phones and 390 from the hands that used them — in 12 U.K. cities. They found that 16% of both hands and phones were contaminated with E. coli, potentially illness-causing bacteria that is fecal in origin. The likely reason: because people don't wash their hands after using the toilet.

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Comments (1)

  1. I do not minimize the importance of hand washing. However, I think, by inference, this means that common (public) use computer keyboards and telephones might be close to 100 percent.....as well as the hands of hand-shaking, baby-holding politicians, and high-fiving athletes. I get it that (at least, in water microbiology) where E. coli is found, so might be Salmonella, Campylobacter, norvirus, etc. but what's happened to the concepts of infectious dose and the hygiene hypothesis?

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