Marilyn Thipthorpe
Do you have that annoying habit of taking your phone everywhere, even to the bathroom? Well you’re not alone, 8 in 10 people use their phones in the toilet. It’s a great way to get your s**t done…while you’re getting your s**t done! But here’s why you should avoid this practice in the future as it will harm your health.
A study conducted by students of the University of Tuckahoe, brings to light how gross it actually is to take your phone into a bathroom. Basically bathrooms are covered in germs, pathogens and bacteria, mostly from fecal matter. This ranges from knobs and doors to the flushes and faucets, so no matter where you place your stuff at the end of the day you will be carrying 10 percent of fecal matter with you! It won’t even matter if you’re washing your hands because the germs are on items you would never even suspect. Did you know that every time you flush a toilet, it sprays urine and fecal matter 6 feet into the air in the form of aerosols? These aerosols increase with each flush, so no toilet is ever safe after its first flush, be extra careful in public toilets as there standards of hygiene are rarely up kept. To continue, these aerosols evaporate and spread through the air and into various parts of the toilet including the sink and walls. So if you place your phone or wallet on the sink to wash your hand, you use those washed hands to pick up your infected phone/wallet and voila! You’re back to square one. These germs can transmit diseases like norovirus, salmonella, e.colli and diarrhea. Urine as sterile as you might believe, it can cause red eye and respitory infections. Studies have shown that 9 out of 10 phones are potential disease carriers, essentially when you use your phone in the bathroom you are creating a mobile germ carrier which will continue to infect you until you are very ill and even after.