Sick from a Cell Phone? Say it isn't so!

Cellphones Are Great for Sharing Photos—and Bacteria; Cleaning May Harm Screens! 

 When you combine a cellphone's proximity to your ears, nose and mouth with its bacteria-loving warmth, the result can be harmful to your health. 

A lab tested eight randomly selected phones from a Chicago office for this article. The phones showed no signs of E. coli or staphylococci bacteria. But all phones showed abnormally high numbers of coliforms, a bacteria indicating fecal contamination. 

"The results are pretty bad," said Dr. Donald Hendrickson, president of HML Labs and professor emeritus of medical microbiology at Ball State University. He says the results suggest a lack of hand-washing and proper hygiene. 

HML then tested four different cleaning methods, including water, alcohol, Windex Original glass cleaner and Nice 'N Clean electronic cleaning wipes. Alcohol performed best, cleaning nearly 100% of the bacteria. Plain water proved to be the least effective method of the four.

Check out the whole Wall Street Journal article by Caroline Porter outlining the new things on the market that will help keep your phone clean!

 | The Wall Street Journal – Tue, Oct 23, 2012 10:48 AM EDT