Amelia Moseley, Reporter: About 90% of the world's population owns one of these, and most people's phones go with them everywhere, all day long. Yes, even in here. Do you mind?
That's according to a recent international survey that found about 43% of Aussies share my habit of doom scrolling on the loo, and 25% say they do it very often. So, how dirty are our phones? Do you take your phones to the toilet? And if so, how often do you do that? And how long do you do that for? Well, you don't have to tell me how long.
Person: Every so often. Not all the time.
Person: So yes, I do most of the time.
Person: I do sometimes. But not often, like not all the time. It just depends like how long I think I'm going to be in therefore.
Person: Sometimes only to like message my mum, if it's something really important.
Person: Just seems like it's not really necessary. And you don't need your phone every second of the day.
Person: And also, it's a bit a little bit unhygienic because it can't really wash the phone.
Do you ever, like, clean your phone? Does that ever occur to you?
Person: I don't think about that.
Person: I do think about that, and I don't wash my phone, because does anyone wash their phone?
Person: I do.
Person: What?
Do you think a lot of people do this?
Person: I do think a lot of people do it. Because like, my dad's been doing it ever since I was a kid.
Do you reckon any of your friends take their phone to the toilet? Do you suspect anyone?
Person: I suspect a lot of them.
Person: Yeah, for example, if they're gonna take a dump, then they probably need some entertainment.
Can I ask you honestly, do you take your phone to the toilet?
Dr Rietie Venter, Head of Microbiology UniSA: Yes, I do even as a microbiologist.
So you've made me feel better.
Dr Venter: A lot of people do it.
Dr. Rieite Venter is going to help me find out exactly what's on my phone.
Dr Venter: We will swab your phone all over, and then I will put it on all of these different plates. This is just nutrient agar, this is just a very rich medium for organisms to grow on. So we thought today for your phone, to not only swab it on one particular agar, but to use a few different ones for different organisms might form a different colour on the medium. So, we will go and put this in an incubator to nice temperature for it to grow.
Is there anything in particular you expect to find on my phone?
Dr Venter: You know, something that could potentially have been deposited from your nose or around us, or potentially from faecal contamination?
When you say faecal you just mean like particles? Right? Yeah. So
Dr Venter: I mean, if you if you flush a toilet, for instance, it generates a huge amount of aerosols, which carry repeat lots and lots of organisms which can in that way, get to your phone, you know,
Gross. We shall see.
Dr Venter: We shall see.
But it's been three days. Let's see what's great.
Dr Venter: You can see this, quite a few different organisms growing on here. So different colours, different colonies, that little yellow one is probably something like Micrococcus Luteus, different organisms that can cause UTIs. Staph aureus, so you might have heard of golden staph? It can cause eye infections, skin infections, and those sorts of things. You don't have that. So, they probably are another sort of staphylococcus.
OK well, all that sounds and looks pretty bad. Well, to anyone that isn't a microbiologist…
Dr Venter: It's pretty, you know.
Yeah.
… this bacteria is already a part of most people's personal microbiome, that's the community of microorganisms that live on our skin and in our bodies. So basically, even if our phones might have, say, 10 times more germs than a toilet seat, experts say if we're pretty healthy already, most bacteria will be nothing to worry about.
Dr Venter: You know, we tend to think of microorganisms as a really a big problem. But 99% of all microorganisms, probably are actually very good for us. In fact, we need them, you know, they help keep us healthy. They help us digest our food. We use them to make the most wonderful food like cheeses and fermented products. We use them as factories to make pharmaceuticals for us. So in general, they're actually the most amazing and useful thing.
Of course, there's still the question of E.coli.
Dr Venter: You see, there's nothing growing on this.
So, are you saying I have no particles on my phone?
Dr Venter: It looks like at least nothing that grew.
Are you surprised by that, Rietie, because I am.
Dr Venter: Even when you are in the bathroom, you still observe hygiene, you know, you wash your hands still you know.
True. Should we be cleaning them more often? Despite the fact that, like you said, this isn't all necessarily harmful bacteria or anything?
Dr Venter: Yes, I think in general good hygiene. You know, like we already do wash your hands after you have been to the bathroom, and give your phone a wipe every now and then.
Good to know.