Touchscreen Cell Phones Are Really, Really Dirty

Has everyone had his or her flu-shot?

Smartphones might be great for keeping up with email and your various different social networking pages while you're on the go, but damn, those touchscreens are wicked dirty.

If you're in the habit of bringing your smartphone to the toilet with you, you probably know that it's not that clean. But did you know that the average mobile phone has 18 times the amount of germs on a toilet flush handle? Yeah, and I bet you don’t use your foot to send text messages in public.

The Sacramento Bee cites figures from a study in Britain in reporting the toilet handle fact but reminds us that we have more to worry about now that touchscreen phones are so widely available. Timothy Julian, a doctoral student from Standford University, warns smartphone owners to not let anyone else touch their phone because they might catch something as a result.

"If you're sharing the device, then you're sharing your influenza with someone else who touches it," Julian, doctoral student and co-author of a study on the spread of viruses, told the Sacramento Bee.

"If you put virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips," he revealed. In turn, "a fair amount of it may go from your fingers to your eyes, mouth or nose," the mostly likely entrance ways for infection.

Guess we should all be invest in some hand sanitizer.

_{Source: Sacramento Bee via Engadget}