Don't Touch My Droid

[WenWM]

That is the message taken away from a recent finding by Stanford University on transfer of germs via touch screens. They said when people share touch screens, they share whatever germs they have on their hands, and that could possible cause health problems.

"If you're sharing the device, then you're sharing your influenza with someone else who touches it," said study co-author Timothy Julian, a doctoral student.

Now if you think that is bad, here is a direct quote from the original source:

Other research suggests that the average mobile phone contains 18 times more bacteria than the typical handle in a men's restroom. You know what that means? Washing your hands after using the restroom apparently isn't such a big deal anymore. No, wait; that can't possibly be a good idea. But then again, are you going to wash your hands every time you finish texting someone?

Julian's warning continues, "If you put virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips" and "a fair amount of it may go from your fingers to your eyes, mouth or nose."

This has lead me to start a "Dude, get your own.... Droid" modeled after the popular PSP commericial because we wouldn't want our one true love (my Droid) to be infected by anything, Would you?

News via: I4U

 

[ocpd44]

Nobody touches my Droid X anyway. It's mine, all mine, bwwaaahahahahahah.......

 

[oh9er]

Gives a new meaning to "My droid got a virus"

 

[sweeeeet]

I can't get passed the first line... massage? thinking about that happy ending?

 

[ocpd44]

Gives a new meaning to "My droid got a virus"

Ha ha, good one. I could use this as another reason not to let people touch my droid. "Uh, sorry, I have a cold and I don't want you to catch it from my phone." Yeah, sounds good.

 

[OSX2000]

:icon_ goofy: Wow, what a revelation...touchscreens can transfer germs. Welcome to the world! Same thing goes for when you open a door, push the elevator button, put money in the parking meter and turn the dial, etc. Speaking of money, any idea how many people, sick and not, have touched your cash before you?

Germs travel. It's part of life.

 

[Dark Lazer]

This is common sense.

 

[hemorrdroid]

:icon_ goofy: Wow, what a revelation...touchscreens can transfer germs. Welcome to the world! Same thing goes for when you open a door, push the elevator button, put money in the parking meter and turn the dial, etc. Speaking of money, any idea how many people, sick and not, have touched your cash before you?

Germs travel. It's part of life.

This.

/10char

 

[Schoat333]

How is this any different from sharing a phone without a touch screen? You still touch the buttons in that case right?

It a good thing so much time was wasted on this study. Who would have ever guessed that you can get germs from someone by touching the same thing that they did?... /sarcasm

 

[Martin030908]

purell, rinse, repeat, purell, rinse, repeat :blink:

 

[Pandemic187]

:icon_ goofy: Wow, what a revelation...touchscreens can transfer germs. Welcome to the world! Same thing goes for when you open a door, push the elevator button, put money in the parking meter and turn the dial, etc. Speaking of money, any idea how many people, sick and not, have touched your cash before you?

Germs travel. It's part of life.

Took the words outta my fingertips.

 

[CxanDroid]

DUH?

We need studies to tell us this? I am getting more and more worried about our future.

 

[czerdrill]

the thousands (millions?) of dollars wasted to do stupid studies like this are sickening.

 

[EmmVeePee]

the thousands (millions?) of dollars wasted to do stupid studies like this are sickening.

Right... researching medicine is an awful idea. I just read the Methods section of the paper and this study and it couldn't have cost more than a few dollars. If you think that studying the role of fomite in disease transfer is stupid then I suggest you don't make comments on things you know nothing about.

Virus transfer between fingerpads and fomites. [J Appl Microbiol. 2010] - PubMed result
If you're interested.

This studied compared the transfer of several viruses from fingers-to-glass and glass-to-finger. This was mainly to compare whether 1 virus could transfer better than another. They found that they could. Since they didn't use influenza, we can't make assumptions about influenza; the journalist did that, not the scientists. There isn't any mention of "influenza" or "phone" in the study.

Seems like a quick and easy experiment. Who knows how useful it will be.

 

[EmmVeePee]

They didn't just say "Viruses can be transferred between surfaces"... they quantified it. The "journalist" sensationalized it.