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- Telephones are one of the easiest ways to pass on disease
in the home or office, research has found.
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- A study presented yesterday revealed that up to two thirds
of the germs on a phone can be transmitted to the next hand on the receiver.
Not only are public phone boxes a good source of stomach bugs and colds,
but the practice of "hot desking" - where companies force employers
to share desks - may increase illness and decrease productivity.
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- A team from the University of Arizona focused on two
organisms that can be found on dirty phones - a bacterium called Serratia
rubidea which is similar to Shigella and E.coli, both of which can cause
stomach upsets, and a bacterial virus called PRD-1. The microbes can spread
around a home or office if hands are not washed properly after using the
lavatory.
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- The researchers contaminated phone receivers, kitchen
taps and sponges with the microbes and then studied how many were transferred
to a hand. About 39 per cent of bacteria and 66 per cent of the viruses
were passed on from a phone, they found. Tap handles were also efficient
transmitters of disease, passing on 28 per cent of bacteria and 34 per
cent of viruses.
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- Once the germs are on a hand, they quickly spread. If
a contaminated fingertip touches a lower lip, 34 per cent of the Serratia
rubidea and significant numbers of the PRD-1 virus are transferred into
the mouth, the researchers told the American Society for Microbiology meeting
in Los Angeles. In one scenario, the team studied the effects of someone
using a phone after visiting the lavatory and not washing his hands properly.
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- More than 107,000 salmonella bacteria could be passed
from the receiver to the finger of the next person using the phone, they
found. Placing a finger in the mouth would transmit around 36,383 salmonella
cells, easily enough to result in illness. A phone receiver contaminated
with a low concentration of rotavirus, which causes diarrhoea, could transfer
6,580 of the viruses to the hand, with 211 of them found on the fingertip.
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- The researchers estimated that 72 viruses could be swallowed
by the phone user, which would be very likely to result in disease. He
said: "If an infected person deposited even a small amount of infected
nasal secretion on to a kitchen tap, 1,037 viruses could be deposited on
the hand of another family member who touched the tap. If this person then
places the fingertip in the mouth, nose or eye, 11 viruses would most likely
be transferred into the opening."
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- Previous studies by the same team, Dr Patricia Rusin,
Dr Charles Gerba and Sheri Maxwell, showed that the common household sponge
may contain 320 million disease-causing germs. An American Society for
Microbiology spokesman said: "Disease can probably be transmitted
in the home more often than these studies suggest because many of these
articles are used repeatedly in the home."
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