Talk about an eww factor — nearly 9 in 10 adults take their phone with them to the bathroom and 1 in 4 has never cleaned their phone.
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The same report by Study Finds showed that 2 in 5 people admitted to putting their dirty phones in their mouths to hold them when their hands were full. Researchers estimated that a regularly used smartphone that has never been cleaned may hold more bacteria than an entire household bathroom.
Double eww!
Truth be told, germ-laden cellphones and tablets may actually pose a hazard when used in your kitchen while you are preparing a meal or when brought to the dinner table by other family members. Nearly half of Americans report using smartphones or tablets during food preparation, and only 37% said they washed their hands before handling the food after touching the device.
Start making a habit of cleaning your phone on a daily basis to reduce its bacterial load, and teach your family to do the same. And, always wash your hands before preparing or handling food.
Foodborne illnesses should not be taken lightly. Such illnesses affected 25,606 people and caused 5,893 hospitalizations in 2018; 120 deaths from food poisoning were reported that same year, and those numbers were up from the year before.
In addition to bacteria and germs, there are other dangers to consider when it comes to cellphones and other wireless devices, such as exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs).
Exposure to microwave radiation from cellphones, routers, cordless phones, smart meters, baby monitors and other wireless devices causes massive mitochondrial dysfunction due to free radical damage. Excessive free radicals have been linked to cardiac arrhythmias, anxiety, depression, autism, Alzheimer’s, infertility and more.
In addition to lessening your exposure to EMFs, other strategies that may help reduce the harmful effects of EMFs include optimizing your magnesium level, getting plenty of omega-3 fats and eating cruciferous vegetables and foods from the cabbage family. Additionally, foods rich in carotenoids (especially lycopene) such as pumpkin, carrots, tomatoes, collards, tangerines, winter squash, peas, watermelons, tomatoes, guavas and grapefruit are nutritious. Allum vegetables including onions, leeks and chives, and terpenoid-rich foods such as mango, bay leaves and lemongrass, are have this nutrient.
EMF exposure may also increase a man's risk for infertility if he wears his cellphones near his groin and/or uses a laptop on his lap, and a woman's risk for breast cancer is higher if she tucks her cellphone in her bra.
Very few would consider getting rid of their smartphones or computers, but you might reconsider how you use all of your devices, and just how many you and your family surround yourselves with at any given point of the day. Keep wireless devices and cellphones away from babies, toddlers and small children altogether.
Also avoid continuously carrying your smartphone on your body. Wearing a cellphone on your hip for 15 hours a day is giving that area of your body nearly continuous radiation exposure.
And, consider “unplugging” and going digital-free several times a week.