UK mobile phones are a-crawl with poo-bugs

Cory Doctorow 3:12 pm Thu Oct 13, 2011

If you thought your mobile carrier was a pile of shit, it's understandable — after all, the phones themselves are festering hives of E coli:

Researchers said that 16% of the devices were contaminated with E coli, which can cause food poisoning, most probably because people fail to properly wash their hands after going to the toilet. The study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, also found that Britons tend to lie about their personal hygiene.

While 95% of the 390 people surveyed said they washed their hands with soap where possible, 92% of mobile phones and 82% of hands were contaminated with bacteria.

(Image: SHIT (med og uten ®), a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from aslakr's photostream)

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