In 2011, a study from the London school 
of hygiene and

revealed that one in six mobile phones 
in Britain is

contaminated with fecal matter – in 
other words, they had poop on them.

What was especially concerning was the 
presence of E coli bacteria – a poop-related

organism that you really don’t want 
to be eating.

Assuming that my fellow Britons don’t have 
particularly unusual bathroom

habits in the grand scheme of things, you 
have to wonder why we don’t see an

epidemic of cell phone poop-related illness 
sweeping the modern world.

Of course harmful bacteria are an unusual 
case as they are living organisms.

But widespread exposure to dubious substances 
goes beyond the biological.

For instance, numerous studies have shown that 
many of the bank notes in circulation

around the world contain traces of cocaine.

Which, when you’ve got your head round the 
disturbing mental image of poop on your cell phone,

begs the question –

why aren’t we all going round high as a kite?

The answer is that it’s not just

what we can measure that’s important, but 
how much we’re exposed to.

Just because we can measure fecal bacteria 
on phones or restricted substances

on bank notes, doesn’t mean that enough of 
the stuff is going to get into our

bodies to have an effect.

So when you come into contact with something 
that might be harmful,

how do you know how much is too much?

For that, we need to know more about what 
happens when different amounts of the

stuff get into the body.

That gets us into dose response, and that 
is a topic for another risk bites.

But in the meantime, it’s safe to assume 
that there’s an important difference

between being able to detect something, a
nd that something presenting

a significant risk.

That said, you might want to think a little 
more carefully about your bathroom

cellphone habits in future – just in case.

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