{"id":19752,"date":"2012-11-15T20:50:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T01:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-31T12:51:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T16:51:45","slug":"mobile-phones-have-more-germs-than-a-toilet-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/mobile-phones-have-more-germs-than-a-toilet-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Smartphone Can Kill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Your<\/a>We all love our smartphones. But did you know that your phone can kill you?<\/strong> And not only texting while driving can kill you and other people. A man in Uganda reportedly contracted Ebola from a mobile phone<\/strong>. Reports say<\/a> he stole the smartphone from a quarantined ward of a hospital, near the site of a recent Ebola outbreak<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Next time you come down with the flu or Ebola<\/strong>, blame your cell phone. According to<\/a> the London<\/a> DailyMail<\/a>, <\/em>researchers have discovered there are more bacteria on the average smartphone<\/strong> than you will find in a toilet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tests\u00a0at the University of Arizona<\/a> by microbiologist\u00a0Charles Gerba<\/a> found there was up to 10 times the amount of bugs<\/strong> that can cause nausea, stomach problems, or even death on cell phones than are present in a lavatory.<\/p>\n

The expert explains that germs are spread by phones that are often passed between people but are never cleaned which allows the germs to keep on building up<\/strong>. The University of Arizona researcher says the bugs get on a phone because it is so close to our hands and mouths<\/strong>. When somebody lets a friend or a stranger use their smartphone their bacteria easily gets on the device too.<\/p>\n

Add to this frenzy of activity that germs thrive in warm places<\/strong>. Not only does your smartphone generate its own heat<\/strong>, but it also gets some help from your own body heat<\/strong> by spending time in your hands and next to your mouth.<\/p>\n

Pro\"Germs<\/a>fessor Gerba added that because mobile devices are electronic some people are reticent about cleaning them. He says that phones are just not part of our cleaning routine whereas we should think about giving them a wipe with an antibacterial<\/strong> substance now and then.<\/p>\n

In order to clean your iPhone, Apple<\/a> (AAPL<\/a>) says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Unplug all cables and turn off iPhone (press and hold the Sleep\/Wake button, and then slide the onscreen slider).<\/li>\n
  2. Use a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth. Avoid getting moisture in openings.<\/li>\n
  3. Don\u2019t use window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia, or abrasives to clean your iPhone.<\/strong> The front and back glass surfaces have an oleophobic coating.<\/li>\n
  4. To remove fingerprints, simply wipe these surfaces with a soft, lint-free cloth. The ability of this coating to repel oil will diminish over time with normal usage, and rubbing the screen with an abrasive material will further diminish its effect and may scratch the glass.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Yick… I also wrote about the filthiness of keyboards here<\/a>. Clean your mobile phone before it kills you!<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Tests found up to 10 times the germs which can cause nausea, stomach problems, or even death on a smartphone than are present in a lavatory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[431],"tags":[2197,420,101,3427,2621,2620,1421,201,329,304,566,810],"class_list":["post-19752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile","tag-2197","tag-aapl","tag-apple","tag-charles-gerba","tag-disease","tag-ebola","tag-ebola-virus-disease","tag-germs","tag-healthcare","tag-iphone","tag-mobile-phone","tag-virus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19752"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125742,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19752\/revisions\/125742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}