Google recently announced the purchase of mobile phone company Motorola, emphasising (if it needed any) the importance now placed on smart phone technology and ongoing battle for dominance.

Everyone now has a touch screen smart phone don’t they? Well, perhaps not everybody but nearly everybody. Research from the UK telecoms regulator suggests that more than half the teenagers and more than a quarter of all UK adults own an iPhone or something similar.

It’s fair to say that we are in the middle of a smart phone, touch screen explosion but what else might we expect to explode in the coming years as the percentage of smart phone owners grows and grows?

Well, the first thing is that the statistics reveal that many of us are actually becoming addicted to our mobile phones. This addiction is likely to feed something else, namely germs and bacteria!

The same survey revealed that more 80% of Smart phone users actually leave their phone switched on all the time! Yes, even when they are in bed!

Not scary enough for you? How about this…More than half of the teenagers and more than a fifth of adult smart phone users, use and answer their phone in the toilet! That’s right; I bet you never even considered where that last text you received was sent from did you?

Now, let’s really think about this (perhaps some of you would prefer not to), all that texting and swiping the screen, fingerprints (washed or not) everywhere, the handset back and forth to your ear!

In 2010 an analysis of 30 handsets by “Which?” magazine revealed that the average handset is covered in more than 18 times the amount of potentially harmful bacteria than you might expect to find on the toilet handle in a men’s loo! Some of the phones were apparently so dirty that they were more than 10 times over the level of acceptable TVC (Total Viable Count) bacteria.

That means that your mobile phone, which you could well be addicted to, could actually be a health hazard!

This is why Computer Cleaning Month is so important. We want to make you aware (if you weren’t already) of the potential dangers out there in terms of germs and bacteria on your handheld touch screen gadgets and show you there are solutions to combat all of these problems. A simple yet effective telephone cleaner could go a long way to making your phone a safer place to touch!