More Bacteria on Cell Phones than Toilet Handle

They are pretty much essential, but you may want to ditch your mobile phone for ever after reading this. The average handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a flush handle in a men's toilet, tests have revealed.

An analysis of handsets found almost a quarter were so dirty that they had up to ten times an acceptable level of TVC bacteria. One of the phones in the test had such high levels of bacteria it could have given its owner a serious stomach upset.

While TVC is not immediately harmful, elevated levels indicate poor personal hygiene and act as a breeding ground for other bugs. The findings from a sample of 30 phones by Which? magazine suggest 14.7million of the 63million mobiles in use in the UK today could be potential health hazards.

Hygiene expert Jim Francis, who carried out the tests, said: 'The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That phone needs sterilising.'