Actually curious about this one-- I've skimmed through some articles about how our cellphones are actually very dirty and are teeming with microorganisms. Some questions: are there certain properties of cellular phones that make it more 'viable' as a habitat for certain disease-causing microorganisms? Or is the amount of disease-causing microorganisms simply because people touch their phones so often?
In addition, I'd like to ask-- have there been scientific studies that attempt to incorporate antibacterial/antibiotic treatments on cellphones (on certain designed cellphone cases, is what I'm guessing)? What could possibly be incorporated in cellphone cases such as those?
Thank you very much.
They are not "teeming" ,and bacteria present are those of the user. Antibacterial additives such as the old Triclosan Microgard are of doubtful benefit. They may show some effect in simple lab studies but in real life bacteria are not offered a isolated cells but come on with bodily secretions and soils and onto cell phones that build up visible and invisible soils as they are used.
In my opinion, we are better off with cell phones than with shared/public phones, from the perspective of contagious microorganisms. Since people usually don't share cell phones very much, microorganisms are less likely to be transmitted between people by them. This is just supposition.
Dr. Geis: I see, that's true, thank you very much.
Dr. Shapiro: That's an interesting idea-- I've never thought about that. Though I suppose cell phones, though not exactly shared, are brought all over the place, sometimes placed carelessly on tabletops and elsewhere, and they are held very often, so I think they can carry microorganisms as well?
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