By specialists and me
You'll find more germs on your smartphone than on your toilet seat -- because your phone is so close to your face and hands
Manuel-F-O/iStock/Thinkstock
If those annoying photos of food that your so-called friends keep clogging
your Facebook feed
with are any indication, folks are getting increasingly comfortable whipping
out their smartphones at the dinner table. This isn't just bad manners; this
could be hazardous to your health.
Take out your
device at chow time and you may be dialing up a side of bacteria with your rack
of lamb. "Mobile phones have become veritable reservoirs of pathogens as
they touch faces, ears, lips and hands of different users of different health
conditions," a pair of
researchers observed in a 2009 study of bacteria removed from
personal calling devices. Some of the germs they found are the source of a wide
variety of nasty bugs, like the flu and pinkeye.
Others could possibly -- albeit unlikely -- even lead to fatal infections
[sources: Famurewa and
David, van Gilder Cooke].
So, before you take out
your mobile gadget to document your next adventure in food porn, take a gander
at some of the bacteria and other micro-organisms that you might be bringing to
the table.
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