Your iPhone is dirtier than a toilet seat. So should you clean it using a disinfectant? Apple says, “Yes”. Amid the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which has infected more than 70 people in India and killed above 4,500 individuals globally, doctors have advised that in addition to regularly washing hands, one should also disinfect their smartphone every 90 minutes with alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Apple has updated the “How to clean your Apple products” section on its official website to permit cleaning your dirty iPhone or other Apple device using a “70 per cent isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes.” Before you go deep cleaning with the wipes, Apple has advised to only gently wipe the hard, nonporous surfaces of your device, including the display, keyboard, or other exterior surfaces. You shouldn’t use bleach or submerge the device in any cleaning agent.
Ravi Shekhar Jha at Fortis Escorts Hospital in Faridabad says the best method to disinfect your smartphone is to use regular doctor spirit or the alcohol-based hand sanitizer at least every 90 minutes. “Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose. The best option is to use a phone cover or a Bluetooth device and try to touch your phone as less as possible. We would also recommend cleaning your phone at least twice a day,” Jha tells IANS.
According to research, published in 2018 by Insurance2Go, a gadget insurance provider, smartphone screens have three times more germs than a toilet seat. One in 20 smartphone users was found to clean their phones less than every six months, the study says. “Smartphones should be disinfected with alcohol-based sanitizer rub. Pour few drops of sanitizer on a clean cotton pad and rub it safely on your entire phone,” advises Jyoti Mutta, senior consultant, microbiology, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute in New Delhi. “You can repeat this process every evening coming back home after an entire day out at work and once in the morning before going out.”
The microbiologist recommends maintaining basic cleanliness and avoiding using other people’s phones, especially if someone is suffering from respiratory illness or showing flu-like symptoms as there is no other way to disinfect these regular gadgets.
Another study from the University of Surrey in the UK, also finds that the home button on your smartphone may be harbouring millions of bacteria—some even harmful.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus as a global pandemic on Wednesday. The death toll of COVID-19 has crossed 4,500 and confirmed cases globally have touched one lakh.
According to Suranjeet Chatterjee, senior consultant in the internal medicine department of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi, coronavirus and other germs can live on surfaces like glass, metal or plastics and phones are bacteria-ridden. “The emphasis should be laid on sanitising our hands rather than sanitising the phone. Once in a while the phone can be sanitised under the guidance of the makers,” Chatterjee says.
(With agency inputs)
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