Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Get your passport blessed 
  • Yes, it changed us
  • The Enyobeni Tavern tragedy: lessons for our own municipality
  • The spirit of Africa in indigenous African instruments
  • A laugh a day keeps the end of fest blues away
  • The hole left by absent fathers
  • Festival Of Circles: a festival within a festival
  • The stunning story of an autistic, self-taught pianist
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
Cue Media
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Don’t talk dirty
Uncategorized

Don’t talk dirty

_Gr0cCc0Tts_By _Gr0cCc0Tts_August 12, 2013No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

It travels with you everywhere you go – frequently cosying up to your ears, nose and mouth after resting on the nearest available surface. It contains some of your most vital information. Some even say their whole life is on theirs. Now, a recent study revealed that apart from your data and dirty secrets it also carries 18 times more germs than the flusher of a men’s loo.

And you thought the only health risk of your shiny smart phone was frying your brain with cancer-causing radiation.

Oh no! Digital viruses from dodgy websites are not the only hazard you’re exposed to from mishandling your phone.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a study showing that the average mobile device is covered in E.coli, Salmonella and Staph bacteria, which can result in flu, vomiting, pink eye, fever and diarrhoea.

The study found about 2 700 to 4 200 units of bacteria on the average cellphone, at least 30 percent of which end up on users’ hands, mouth, ears and nose. Compare that to drinking water, which should have less than two units of bacteria per cup.

Think about it. Our cellphones have become a ubiquitous extension of our reach, exposed to everything we are, but without the luxury of washing their hands.

And we often let other people touch them when we share the latest meme or cute cat video.

“You wouldn’t have hundreds of people using the same glass or cup, but theoretically, if hundreds of people share the same keyboard or touchpad, then effectively that’s what you’re doing,” said health expert Peter Collignon in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Germs thrive in warm places; and not only does your smartphone generate its own heat, but it also warms up with the help of body-heat in your hands and pockets. Jeffry Can, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians told the Wall Street Journal that “people are just as likely to get sick from their phones as from handles of the bathroom”.

It’s no surprise then that students at South University in Columbia found rampant contamination with the flesh-eating antibiotic-resistant Staph bacteria after swabbing a sample of 60 handsets. Staph skin infections can quickly turn into painful abscesses. The bacteria can also burrow deeper into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

So now that you’re thoroughly grossed out, what can be done to clean up the cesspit of bacteria that is your cellphone?

To start with, always wash your hands and wipe your precious device with anti-bacterial wipes.

Swab the nooks and crannies with rubbing alcohol; and there’s a nifty product called Wireless Wipes that disinfects phones without harming them.

Clean out more than your inbox. It makes for healthier cellphone connections.

Previous ArticleCouncillor acquitted of assault
Next Article Makana Enviro-News: New garden project, enviro award at Rhodes
_Gr0cCc0Tts_

Related Posts

Johan Carinus tree planting

Learn music fit for a king

First place for Malawian journalist- Need to upload Pix

Comments are closed.

Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Latest video

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2022 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.