How many times a day do you touch your phone? It’s pretty easy to lose count, as it seems like our cell phones never leave our side—even when we use the bathroom. You might want to rethink your toilet doom scrolling, though, as your phone can be one of the worst breeding grounds for fecal bacteria and other viruses.
Several studies of health care workers show the high level of bacterial and microorganism growth on their mobile phones—but it’s not just in clinical settings that bacteria thrives on smartphones. A 2017 study of high school students’ phones found the presence of over 17,000 bacterial gene copies per phone—the more gene copies, the greater potential for faster bacteria growth.
Most jarringly, researchers at the University of Arizona found that cell phones carry 10 times more bacteria than a toilet seat, including E.coli, Salmonella, norovirus, staph, and gonorrhea. That can add up to a lot of bacterial exposure, as a Reviews.org survey reports that Americans check their phones a whopping 205 times a day.
“People’s phones are out when urinating and defecating, exposing the phones to bacteria,” says Dr. Suraj Saggar, chief of infectious disease at Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey. “Then put it into a pocket or purse that is dark, allowing bacteria to grow.”
Below, experts tell Fortune how worried you should be about potential pathogens on your phone and the best way to keep it clean.
Can you get sick from bacteria on your phone?
Since our phones are with us nearly 24/7, it’s easy for it to become exposed to bacteria from several sources, says Kim Shumate, Director of Infection Prevention at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, whose background is in clinical microbiology.
The most common bacteria and viruses on your phone are fecal bacteria like E. coli or Salmonella, as well as viruses like norovirus, the flu, and rhinovirus (the common cold), says Saggar.
Potential points of contact can be water splashed from the sink or toilet, droplets from others coughing or sneezing, and our own potentially unclean hands that come into contact with various surfaces.
“It’s always very hard to pinpoint the exact source where you got the bacteria or virus,” Shumate tells Fortune.
Some pathogens can also live on your phone for as long as five months, according to Shumate—but most viruses like norovirus and rhinovirus can only live on surfaces for about a week, she adds.
While getting sick from your phone is definitely possible, she thinks that it isn’t as frequent as getting sick from direct contact with someone who is infected—like shaking their hand if they didn’t wash it well enough.
How to disinfect your phone
Even if the risk of sickness isn’t as high as someone directly coughing on you, experts still advise regular disinfecting of your phone—at least once a day, experts say.
Here are some tips that experts like Saggar and Shumate recommend to ensure the most effective cleaning:
- Use wipes with 70% isopropyl alcohol to clean the phone and case, then follow with a microfiber cloth.
- Find products that claim to kill certain viruses, such as solutions or wipes that kill norovirus or the flu.
- Check the labels on your cleaning products. Most bleach products need to remain on your phone for at least three to five minutes, Shumate says, while others only need to stay for one minute before being wiped off.
- Consider using an ultraviolet-disinfecting box, where your phone sits under UV rays that kill bacteria.
Wash your hands
Even with regular phone disinfecting, experts emphasize still the number one thing to keeping yourself healthy: hand hygiene.
“It’s not necessarily your phone per se, it’s what you do with your hand after touching your phone,” Shumate says.
Because people often absent-mindedly touch their faces, your greatest risk of contracting an illness from your phone bacteria is through unwashed hands spreading germs to your eyes, nose, and mouth, experts say.
While hand sanitizer can be effective, she says, diligent handwashing (with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds) guarantees you’re scrubbing and washing away all pathogens—that is especially important for illnesses like norovirus, which is spread from the particles in vomit and diarrhea.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, handwashing reduces the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by 23 to 40%, and reduces respiratory illnesses in the general population by 16 to 21%.
More on viruses:
- As bird flu becomes a growing threat, Moderna is awarded $590M to develop mRNA pandemic influenza vaccines
- Could you have COVID? Symptoms to watch for in 2025 include sore throat and fatigue
- Public health experts are warning of a ‘quad-demic’ this winter. Here’s where flu, COVID, RSV, and norovirus are spreading
