Health scare of the week: Germ-bearing cell phones

last updated 8 January 2015

A new British study shows that one in six cell phones is contaminated with E. coli bacteria—probably because the owners fail to wash their hands after using the bathroom. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tested nearly 400 phones in a dozen U.K. cities and found that 92 percent harbored some form of bacteria, including E. coli, which comes from feces and can cause serious illness. The phones’ owners also had bacteria on their hands.

“They’re spreading fecal bugs on everything they touch, really,” and those bacteria can linger on surfaces for hours, study author Val Curtis tells WebMD.com. Yet when she and her colleagues asked the volunteers about their bathroom habits, 95 percent swore they scrubbed with soap and water after flushing. “People may claim they wash their hands regularly, but the science shows otherwise,” says study co-author Ron Cutler. It’s even possible, he says, that phones pick up germs while users are texting on the toilet. “People do tend to use their mobile phones everywhere.”