Did you know that it was global hand washing day today? No, me neither. Well, thanks to Aunty, we do now. Anyway, researchers have been taking samples from peoples’ hands and mobile phones to see what nasty bugs they can find.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London took nearly 400 samples from mobile phones and hands in 12 British cities.
They found 16% of phones and 16% of hands harboured E. coli (Escherichia coli), bacteria which inhabit the human intestines.
The largest proportion of contaminated phones was in Birmingham (41%) while Londoners were caught with the highest proportion of E. coli present on hands (28%).
Before you start to get all worried…
But the sample size in each city was small, so the variations between them could be a statistical anomaly.
So not really proper research after all – after all 400 people out of millions is statistically insignificant. Of course there are some people who don’t wash their hands properly – or at all, but the panic is probably over stated. There is, however, a dark warning for all of us:
Most strains of E. coli found on the hands and phones are not likely to cause major ill-health, although listeners of “The Archers” will know that Clarrie Grundy became an unwitting carrier of the bacteria, leading to a number of children being hospitalised in the fictional county of Borsetshire.
Er…