You may like to throw your mobile phone after reading this, as a new study has found the average handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a tiolet's flush handle.
An analysis of handsets by British experts found almost a quarter of them were so dirty that they had up to 10 times an acceptable level of TVC(Total Viable Count) bacteria. TVC gives a quantitative idea about the presence of microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and mold in a sample. Elevated levels of TVC indiacte poor personal hygiene and act as a breeding ground for other bugs.
One of the phones in the test had such high levels of bacteria that it could have given its owner a serious stomach upset, said the researchers who carried out the study for the which? magazines. The findings from a sample of 30 phones suggest that 14.7 million of the 63 million mobiles in use in UK today could be potential health hazards.
According to the findings, the most unhygienic phone had more than 10 times the acceptable level of TVC, while the worst handset had 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria-- a gruop of bacteria that live in the lower instestines of human and animals and include bugs such as Sahmonella.
From- The Times of India.