A new study of the bacteria found on hands and cellphones might cause people to improve their personal hygiene habits.
Students involved in the project went to 12 cities in the United Kingdom and took 390 swabs from people's hands, and another 390 swabs of their cellphones.
An analysis found 92 per cent of phones and 82 per cent of hands had bacteria on them.
Ron Cutler, the director of biomedical science degree programs at Queen Mary, University of London, says about 16 per cent of the hands and cellphones carried E. coli bacteria, which originates in fecal matter and which can cause diarrhea and vomiting.
Cutler says that in some cases, the phones were extraordinarily contaminated with thousands of bacteria, and this could potentially be a health risk to the user.
He advises people to thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water after using the washroom, and to dry them well.
