Scientists issue urgent warning about using your phone at the dinner table
Share:
For many social media-obsessed people, the phone eats first. But if you’re planning to snap your Christmas Dinner this year, there’s bad news. Experts have issued an urgent warning about using your phone at the dinner table – and it’s not just that it’s rather rude.
![[As disgusting as it sounds, bacteria usually reach our smartphones via our own hands, according to Dr Nye (stock image)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/11/29/10/92617247-0-image-a-113_1732875391237.jpg)
Dr Gareth Nye, a senior lecturer in physiology at the University of Chester, has warned that your smartphone can harbour harmful germs that could then spread to your dining table. Worryingly, this includes bacteria that can cause everything from food poisoning to skin infections.
‘Mostly GI-like conditions such as diarrhoea, vomiting, and other stomach upsets,’ Dr Nye explained. ‘However, in people with compromised immune systems, it can cause very nasty infections like sepsis or pneumonia.’. While Dr Nye advises that you keep your smartphone well away from your dining table, if you can’t bear to be away from it, there are several things you can do to keep any germs at bay.
For many social media-obsessed people, the phone eats first. But if you’re planning to snap your Christmas Dinner this year, there’s bad news (stock image). Speaking to Compare & Recycle, Dr Nye revealed some of the types of bacteria that can be found on your smartphone.
‘[It] depends on the line of work the owner has,’ he explained. ‘Healthcare workers, even if not frontline, can be growing a range of bacteria with the most common being Pseudomonas aeruginosa (which can cause severe respiratory or skin infections) and Acinetobacter baumannii (which can lead to meningitis).
