# 5898
Just in time for Global Handwashing Day – which is tomorrow, October 15th – we’ve a report from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine that should give one pause before asking to borrow another person’s cell phone.
Contamination of UK mobile phones and hands revealed
One in six mobile phones in the UK is contaminated with fecal bacteria, researchers found
One in six mobile phones in Britain is contaminated with faecal matter, according to new research released ahead of Global Handwashing Day.
Experts say the most likely reason for the potentially harmful bacteria festering on so many gadgets is people failing to wash their hands properly with soap after going to the toilet.
The findings of the UK-wide study by scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London also reveal a tendency among Britons to lie about their hygiene habits.
Although 95% of people said they washed their hands with soap where possible, 92% of phones and 82% of hands had bacteria on them. Worryingly, 16% of hands and 16% of phones were found to harbour E. coli – bacteria of a faecal origin. Harmful E. coli (Escherichia coli) is associated with stomach upsets and has been implicated in serious cases of food poisoning such as the fatal O157 outbreak in Germany in June.
BBC News has a short (2 minute) video on this story, showing how the testing of mobile phones was accomplished.
While cell phones were the subject of this study, in truth anything and everything we touch can harbor bacteria. Door knobs, computer keyboards, shopping cart handles, elevator buttons, credit cards, cash . . . .
And as the movie `Contagion’ pointed out so effectively, we touch our faces 3 to 5 times every waking minute, and in between we are touching hundreds of other (likely contaminated) surfaces every day.
The opportunities for introducing pathogens into your body via your eyes, nose or mouth are abundant, and your only real defense is washing your hands as often as possible.
And it isn’t just bacteria, like Staph, MRSA, or E. coli that can contaminate surfaces. Viruses can live for hours – and under the right condition, sometimes days – on inanimate surfaces.
With cold and flu season upon us, it is all the more reason to carry (and use) a bottle of alcohol sanitizer and to seek out opportunities to wash your hands with soap and water as often as possible.
Although better than nothing, hand sanitizers are not always enough. In CMAJ: Hand Sanitizers May Be `Suboptimal’ For Preventing Norovirus we saw how these handy sanitizers are not always effective against C. Diff and Norovirus.
In Fomite to Fingers To Face: A Triple Play Combination, we looked at how long some of these pathogens could remain viable on surfaces and act as a vehicle of transmission.
The 2007 study Significance of Fomites in the Spread of Respiratory and Enteric Viral Disease by Stephanie A. Boone,& Charles P. Gerba found that most viruses survived longer on nonporous surfaces (metal or plastic), and that respiratory viruses (RSV, HPIV, influenza virus, coronavirus, and rhinovirus) could remain viable for hours or even days.
Under the right conditions, enteric viruses - like Rotavirus, Norovirus, and Hepatitis A - have been known to survive on fomites from weeks to months.
We live in a germy world.
Which is why public health agencies and organizations push hand washing so vigorously. They know it literally saves lives.
As an inveterate hand washer from way back (I was a paramedic during the 1970s, before wearing latex gloves became de rigueur), I’m certainly a believer.
I had my hands in an untold number of unspeakable messes, but washed (well . . actually scrubbed) my hands more than a dozen times each day, and managed to stay healthy.
For more on all of this I’d invite you to visit:
And the CDC’s hand hygiene website, where you will find many resources, including a link to a new iPad/iPhone application called iScrub.
