According to a new study the average mobile phone carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than the flush handle on a men’s toilet.
The analysis of handsets found that almost a quarter were so dirty that they had up to ten times the acceptable level of TVC bacteria.
One of the phones in the test had such high levels of bacteria that it could have given its owner a serious stomach upset.
Elevated levels of TVC indicate poor personal hygiene and act as a breeding ground for other bugs.
The findings from Which? suggests that 14.7 million of the 63 million mobile phones used in the U.K. today could potentially be a health hazard. The study consisted of testing 30 phones.
Hygiene expert Jim Francis, who carried out the research, said, “The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That phone needs sterilizing.”
The phone that tested worse for hygiene had 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria, a group of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of humans and animals and include bugs like Salmonella.
The phone had 170 times the acceptable level of fecal coliforms, which are associated with human waste.
Other bacteria including food poisoning bugs e.coli and staphylococcus aureus were found on the phones, but at safe levels.
Ceri Stanaway, a Which? researcher, said “Most phones didn’t have any immediately harmful bacteria that would make you sick straight away but they were grubbier than they could be.”
“The bugs can end up on your hands which is a breeding ground and be passed back to your phone. They can be transferred back and forth and eventually you could catch something nasty.”
“What this shows is how easy it is to come into contact with bacteria. People see toilet flushes as being something dirty to touch but they have less bacteria than phones.”
“People need to be mindful of that by observing good hygiene themselves and among others who they pass the phone to when looking at photos, for example.”
Which? has previously performed test like this that found some computer keyboards carry more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat.
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