Ask Dr. Maxwell

How Many Germs Does Your Cell Phone Have?

Germs and bacteria attach to the many personal items the average person uses daily. In this day and age, the cell phone is one of the most utilized item in our lives. Most of the time, public notices remind us to wash our hands, and so we focus on places like the bathroom or kitchen as a hot spot for these germs. However, these days the focus should also be on the little gadgets in our hands, which carry loads of filth.

The truth is, our hands carry a lot of disease and dirt throughout the day. We may wash our hands, but we don’t properly wash our phones where we have transferred much of that dirt and grime. According to Fox News, a cell phone has 18 times more bacteria than a public restroom, and 1 in 6 phones have fecal matter on them!

This makes your phone easily one of the filthiest items that you come in contact with on a daily basis. In fact, the Seattle Times reports that each square inch of our cell phones contains roughly 25,000 germs. When you think about this; whatever your hands touch, our phones touch. While we may wash our hands diligently after going to the bathroom, handling money, or preparing food in the kitchen, we normally don’t take the time to disinfect our smart phones. A study by Stanford University doctoral student Timothy Julian, published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, reports that “if you put a virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips.” A good amount is also transferred from our hands, then into our eyes, mouth or nose, which are the most common routes of infection.

To make matters worse, phones stay warm, which help bacteria and viruses thrive. The bacteria can go up against your face and give you acne, or into your mouth to transfer a harmful virus and make you sick. But since we can’t throw our phones into the sink to disinfect them, what should we do to keep them clean?

 

How To Clean Your Cell Phone

From wipes to UV lights, many products out there claim to help disinfect your phone. My recommendation is PhoneSoap Phone UV Sanitizer. This charging station utilizes UV light, which works to sanitize and clean your phone. The Discovery Channel tested the PhoneSoap Charger to determine its effectiveness. You can watch the video here!

UV light has been used for over a century to sanitize medical instruments and in sterile work facilities. Since the phone is such a cesspool of bacteria, coupled with the warmth of the phone that helps bacteria stay alive, UV-C light is just the thing to kill the germs. PhoneSoap utilizes UV-C waves, which are the longest UV waves, to penetrate and kill bacteria and viruses. UV-C rays do not get hot, and won’t harm your cell phone.

Aside from PhoneSoap, vinegar is another great natural cleaning agent that can stave off bacteria and keep your phone from making you sick. Check out the many ways you can clean with vinegar and get your phone back to a healthy state, instead of the germ magnet that it is today!