(Newser)
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If you’re reading this on your smartphone, you might want to go wash your hands now: A new study out of London finds that one out of six cellphones has fecal matter on it. UK researchers swabbed 390 mobile phones and the British hands that used them, and found that 16% of both were contaminated with E. coli bacteria—which, yes, comes from poop, Time reports.
The contamination likely occurs when people fail to wash their hands after using the bathroom, researchers say, and since E. coli can survive for hours in warm conditions, it can easily be transferred from your smartphone back to your hands even if you do eventually wash them. The study also found that 92% of hands and 82% of phones were contaminated by some type of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus. Click for more on your germy smartphone.
