Your mobile phone may have up to 25,000 bacteria per square inch, which is pretty staggering considering a toilet seat only has about 1,200 and a doorknob has 8,600.

That means your phone is probably the dirtiest object you’ll touch in a given day. It’s a scary thought given reports that the COVID-19 coronavirus may be able to stay alive on a hard surface for up to nine days.

Health experts advise that thorough hand washing is the best defense against infection. But is it really effective when most of us have our phones in our hands almost constantly?

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Like all electronics, phones are hard to clean without damaging sensitive electronics. But most newer models are water resistant, so they likely can be cleaned with a little soap and damp cloth. Screen protectors can possibly be wiped with sanitizing wipes that could cut down on contamination.

If you’re looking for a more tech-forward option, you can use an ultraviolet (UV) light to sanitize the screen. UV light devices, such as PhoneSoap, can shed rays onto a device, which “effectively destroys nucleic acids and breaks apart bacteria DNA.” They claim this kills 99.99 percent of household germs.

But check with manufacturers first.

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Published on Mar 10, 2020