Sixth of Britain's cellphones have traces of poo on them One in every six mobiles in the UK has got traces of poo on it, according to a new study. Scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Queen Mary, University of London, found that mobes were typically contaminated with faecal matter because people still didn't wash their hands properly with soap …
Chopping boards have three times the bacteria of a toilet seat and as I don't get food poisoning all the time the answer is:
Well, that's obviously alright then.
Chopping boards, crucially, don't have fecal bacteria. The odd keyboard may and I certainly won't go for the nuts in my local...
Why pick on phone, good daily-fail headline grabber I supposed, but they should check a few more surfaces.
I think you'd be hard pressed to exit a pub toilet without getting something on your hands from the taps, door handle etc etc etc... Then stand on the bus/tube on the way home and grab something to steady yourself... Oh dear...
So as always, wash your hands before sticking them in your mouth or cooking.
Oh, but don't go completely anal about it, exposure to things does help the immune system, it's one of the theories why there are more allergies these days, kids just don't get out into the garden and eating worms like they used to - they don't get past the door way before an over protective parent dives on them with an anti-bac spray.
Before mobile phones, iPads and Kindle, it was accepted practice to have a newspaper, magazine or book (anyone used to read viz?) in the little room. This had the added advantage, that if you run out of loo paper then there was a ready made solution.
Perhaps people are using their new gadgets as surrogate shite-paper? The iScrape perhaps?
To be on the safe side, I always wash my hands after reading the Register.
I've seen/heard too many men in toilets in offices run their hands under water for as little as 1 second. How is that supposed to wash them?
Soap AND warm water is needed for at least 10 seconds of vigourous rubbing after doing a wee or at least 15 secs after doing a poo. If someone has experience toilet paper malfunction they should wash their hands twice paying attention to rubbing finger tips too.
How many people leave a public toilet by pulling open a door by a handle or pushing using the palm of their hand? Congratulations, you've scooped up other people's poo germs. How many cleaners bother to clean door handles regularly? Hardly any.
I recently got taught how to wash my hands by a friend who works for the NHS - I'm 37, so thought something along the lines of "patronising cow, I know full well how to wash my hands." which was shortly followed by a "how has no-one bothered to teach me this, I'm 37 and have only just learned how to wash my hands properly."
I had a similar moment when a new dental hygenist taught me how to clean my teeth at the age of about 29.
ever wondered how our parents and grandparents before them (even unto the 4th generation) survived ?
If you kill all the bacteria on your skin you'll get skin diseases pretty damn quickly - there used to be a name for it - some syndrome or other and it is EXTREMELY unhealthy to be obsessively clean if you don't need to be. Personally - I was taught not to wee on my hands
Since most of you don't work in sterile conditions - you don't need to be obsessing about being sterile.
A bit of dirt and several billion bugs are good for you a lack of either is already known to be bad for you
Is this the next stupid alarmism ?
"Personally - I was taught not to wee on my hands"
Aha - but were you told to keep your hands out of the way of a number one? Obvious gap there (take that any way you want - boom boom).
The bugs in faeces are *not* good for you, and you find in many cultures taboos that emerge to originate in primitive hygiene. Example; you never shake someone's left hand in some Asian countries, especially if you're inland. It appears a taboo, but the background is actually sanitary - I don't think you need much help working out what that left hand is used for. Quite unfortunate for left handed people, btw.
It's also a standard disruption tactic by special forces to let some faeces "develop" before spreading the good news and get everyone rather serously ill. We all have bio warfare tools built in - some just need a good curry.
I'll have obsessively clean over "missed my annual bath twice" any time. And don't try to shake hands with me.
"Example; you never shake someone's left hand in some Asian countries"
What!!! But is the scouts they told us that B-P said you shake hands with the left hand because you had to put down your shield to shake hands, you mean.....
:
wait for it....
:
You'll never guess what I'm going to say...
:
It's all a load of crap!
Mine's the one covered in dib-dib-dib
But consider the alternative - outside there's a rather confused person who's breaking his neck for a piss but can't work out why simply staggering into the door doesn't work. Not only do you risk braining him with the door as you shoulder-charge it to open it without sullying your freshly-scrubbed hands, there's also the risk that he might piss all over you in shock.
'Soap AND warm water is needed for at least 10 seconds of vigourous rubbing after doing a wee'
Unless you have something significantly wrong with you such as a UTI, your pee will be sterile. Obviously it's good manners to wash your hands properly after peeing, but it's a far smaller deal than putting down the toilet lid before flushing from a bacterial perspective.
Here's what puzzles me about toilets - why are the sinks almost always far away from the toilet and not right next to it?
Think about it, you do your business, pull up your clothes, tighten belts, buttons etc. then walk out and to the sink, leaving bacteria on your clothes because you couldn't wash your hands before pulling them up.
But on the other hand, living in an environment that's too clean may not be beneficial to your immune system.
You know, the story that we are all far too hygienic and that's why serious allergies and auto immune diseases are on the rise?
Also, how do you know that when I wash my hands, pulling the handle on the door doesn't re contaminate my hands with e.coli from the last dirty person?
Uh...
The focus on the statistic of "82 per cent of hands had bacteria on them." is somewhat misleading.
Humans are NOT sterile, we harbour bacteria both in our gut and on our skin, we have various Streptococcal and Staphylococcal species among others, in our nose, ears, mouth etc.
Under normal conditions they do not threaten our health or lead to disease.
The incidence of faecal indicator bacteria, now that part is a little alarming, if not a huge surprise. Cleaning ones hands after using the bathroom is highly recommended.
Attempting to maintain sterility of your skin is futile and the kinds of detergents necessary to go down that route would be harmful in the quantities and frequency of application required.
Just my 2 cents.
Can you send these boffins with clearly too much time on the ... erm ... hands over to my office to check for:
- Faecal matter on the coffee machine (not to mention mold)
- Faecal matter on the office phones, upholstery, keyboards, door handles, LAN cables and routers, office floor mats (DEFINITELY OFFICE FLOOR MATS) and possibly the CPU fans.
I'm sure there will be SURPRISES.
But I can exhort my cow-orkers to wash hand all day, to no avail.
When my son was being born, the midwife described to the missus "when it feels like you need a poo, just push like you normally would and hard". The missus asked "but what if I end up pooing on the babies head instead?", the midwife responded "that isn't a problem, it's the best thing for the baby's immune system!".
I remember my doctor telling me years ago, that if people followed just basic hygiene practices such as washing your hands before meals, there'd be less disease in the world, and that all this "kill all germs and bacteria at any cost, dammit man spray your hands and take these wipes with you and disinfect your keyboard!!" was counter productive, promoted disease and actually resulted in the body being less able to fight infection.
So I think we're in need of a bit more real life 2-girls-1-cup!
*For the record I wash my hands with soap after using the amenities for 1's or 2's, but I also wash my hands before using them to put food in my mouth. If my hands get dirty inbetween, I leave it to my immune system.
Bacteria is on everything we handle and it seldom causes a problem. We have an immune system for a very good reason, and for most people it does an admirable job in protecting us. Are there any studies that show that the bacteria on phones is causing infections? If this were a real problem, people would be getting sick from bacterial infections -- and they're not. The vast majority of illnesses that most people get are viral, not bacterial. I would be far more concerned about catching an airborne virus while riding in a commercial airliner, bus, or subway than catching a bacterial infection from a dirty phone.
I think the problem is that while most people do wash their hands, they don't do it properly, and in particular they don't dry their hands afterwards. If you just dip your hands under the running tap for a second, and don't dry them properly, that is actually worse than not washing them at all.
Ideally, you should wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot water, dry them with a paper towel, then dry them a bit more in a hand drier, then use an alcohol gel to kill any remaining nasties.
Hmm. Why no mention of quantities? E-coli is a bit like like radiation - there's never none, except where there are no animals. I'm pretty sure that if you took samples from church roofs or gravestones you would find minute quantities of E-coli. The question is, how much did they find on the phones and is there any significance to that, health-wise?
The silence of the article on this may give us a clue.
I could never understand why the fuss, . since the whole of your digestive system is stuffed with bacteria. I once read that 40% of what you excrete is bacteria. What can be the harm in sending the stuff round for a second trip. So long as it's your particular mix of bacteria, that is. No other animal seems to give a damn. Are we some sort of alien on this planet?
Why does Gary F need warm water? I would think cold water + soap works just as well unless your "warm" water is approaching 333 kelvin. Maybe it just feels nicer?
This sort of study reminds me of the forensic test they sometimes do on Top Gear. A good source of sophomoric humour, e.g. "your phone/car/hands are covered in poo!" but not of any real consequence.
Most bank notes have traces of cocaine on them. You're not going to get high from licking all your reddies any more than you will get seriously ill by eating a sandwich between texts.
I elect never to use the cubicles at work as some of my IT peeps in my office have a diet that can cause some quite expoosive, not to mention, stinky outpoot. I think this is a common thing with IT.
And I always try and let someone else get the door on the way out.
Saying that, I do remember a brainiacs epoosode where they tested toothbrushes and that was very enlightening I have to say. So phones are just the tip of the poo-berg.
This comment coming to you from the crapper!
I'm not saying you shouldn't, as walking around with shit-laden fingers is extremely gross. However, in the rules of food hygiene, washing your hands after going to the toilet does little for you. Why? As others have pointed out, the door you push to get out. Lift buttons. Keyboards or, God help us, public phones. Taxi handles. Those strap things you hold on to on the tube. There are literally thousands of infectious vectors ALL OUT TO KILL US (there you go, there's Monday's alarmist headline).
Hygiene in the outside world requires everybody to clean their hands properly at all times, and God knows we've all witnessed enough people either passing their hands under the tap so quickly they're barely wet, or just not even bothering. There's also the old adage of certain cultures using one hand to eat and the other to...
The most important thing is not whether or not you wash your hands after visiting the crapper, but whether or not you wash your hands before eating, handling food, or watching a film while stuffing yourself; because in these cases you risk setting up a direct chain of contamination roughly akin to crap->hands->nachos->gut=bleugh!
Wash your hands after going to the toilet but handle the door on the way out - MIGHT have shit on your hands.
Go to the toilet and leave without washing your hands - DO have shit on your hands.
To take a ridiculous extreme example, you don't take the fact that another driver might crash into you and kill you as free reign for you to clart round town at 100mph ignoring all the lights.
Sent from my Porcelain Throne
@Gary F
"..Soap AND warm water is needed for at least 10 seconds of vigourous rubbing after doing a wee or at least 15 secs after doing a poo. If someone has experience toilet paper malfunction they should wash their hands twice paying attention to rubbing finger tips too..."
I feel some regulatory legislation and associated 'stealth' fines coming on....
To the tune of that Donna Summer '80s song...
"Soap AND warm water is needed for at least 10 seconds of vigourous rubbing after doing a wee "
What? Warm water? We're supposed to be killing the bacteria, not breeding it.
And where does that 10 seconds come from? I think that figure might have some e coli on it too.
Quite frankly, in most pub loos, my cock is by far the cleanest thing in the room. I'm certainly not going near the sinks. No different to washing your hands in an urinal.
I recommend picking up a Bacterminator cover for your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or iPad! They are antibacterial and non toxic for up to 3 years with heavy use. I love knowing that my iPhone is not picking up any germs from every bar, tabletop, desk or surface I put it on. I got mine at www.bacterminator.com.
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