Brits’ phones not as clean as you think

I know that there has been plenty of research done to look into the cleanliness as well as hygiene of public places, where elevator buttons and doorknobs tend to be crawling with all sorts of microscopic nasties – which is why carrying around a small bottle of a disinfectant is always a good idea. Well, another thing to avoid if you are paranoid about catching a bug would be to borrow a phone – especially from a Brit, after results from a new study conducted by the University of London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary which claims that one in six phones in a study that comprised of 400 phones and hands across 12 British cities had fecal matter on it.

Yes sir, we’re talking about poop on your handset here – not exactly the nicest thing to come across your mind, making the British stiff upper lip seem to be like a smile now when you think about it. E. coli was used in this case study as a marker for the presence of fecal matter, and perhaps this could be due that folks wash their hands less in colder and wetter conditions, hence the presence of the E. coli strains discovered.

Say, would you like to borrow my phone now?