Poop and cellphones - leading into dose response

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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