Mobile Phones can Make you Seriously ill

Your electronic devices, according to two latest researches, have the potential to make you really sick.

A recent study from the Journal of Applied Microbiology says viruses can easily be transferred from nonporous glass surfaces, such as the touch screen of an iPhone — up to 30 percent of a virus can be transferred from the screen of your device to your fingers. A separate British study Journal of Applied Microbiology says mobile phones are covered with up to 18 times more bacteria than a toilet handle.

 

Mobile Phones Are Covered with Viruses: Ashton explained, “Imagine these are germs, bacteria or viruses. You see how you touch your mobile phone all day long. Before long, it is covered with bacteria, viruses, germs.” She further added: “You know, we live in an environment that’s not clean, but when you talk about putting something like this near your face or touching it all day long and putting your fingers to your nose and mouth, you can see how easy it is. … If you hand someone your phone or put it down and don’t clean your hands, you see how this is a petri dish.” Dr. Ashton said people can catch any number of bugs, from cold and flu viruses to E. coli and norovirus. “I actually saw a patient who got MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) from their phone.”

 

How to Clean Mobile Phones: Dr. Jennifer Ashton showed some ways to clean your touchscreen mobile devices. To clean your product, you can wipe them down with special wipes you can buy at an electronics store. They also have cleaners you can buy if you’re concerned about damage. “I’d also recommend wipe down your regular phones and work areas with sanitizing wipes. ”

Basic Hand Washing: Wash your hands with soap and water. Wash them for at least 15 seconds or as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday.” You can also use a hand sanitizer as well.

 

Be Careful & Take Care of Your Health: Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth — and don’t forget to cover your cough and sneezes. With children in mind, Ashton added parents should clean their electronics as often as possible. She said, “Listen, you can’t live your life in a sterile environment and certainly day-care centers are ripe with germs, also, but you want to be aware that you do pick these things up from somewhere. If you hand one of these to your toddler to occupy while you are doing something, they can get sick from these so keep them clean. I wipe mine down with alcohol; I try to, once a day.”

Is Your Mobile Phone Germ-free?

You may like to throw your mobile phone after reading this, as a new study has found that the average mobile handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a toilet’s flush handle.

An analysis of mobile phones by British researchers found that almost a quarter of them were so dirty that they had up to 10 times an acceptable level of TVC bacteria.

Germs on Mobile Phone: TVC, or Total Viable Count, gives a quantitative idea about the presence of microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and mold in a sample. Elevated levels of TVC indicate poor personal hygiene and act as a breeding ground for other bugs. One of the used phones in the test had such high levels of bacteria that it could have given its owner a serious stomach upset, said the researchers who carried out the study for the ‘Which?’ magazine.

The findings from a sample of 30 used mobile phones suggest that 14.7 million of the 63 million mobile handsets in use in the UK today could be potential health hazards, they said. “The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That mobile phone needs sterilizing,” lead researcher Jim Francis was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

Unhygienic Mobile Causes Various Diseases: According to the findings, the most unhygienic used mobile had more than ten times the acceptable level of TVC, while the worst mobile handset had 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria — a group of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of humans and animals and include bugs such as Salmonella. It boasted 170 times the acceptable level of faecal coliforms, which are associated with human waste. Other bacteria including food poisoning bugs e.coli and staphylococcus aureus were found on the used mobile phones but at safe levels.

Which? magazine’s Ceri Stanaway said: “Most used phones didn’t have any immediately harmful bacteria that would make you sick straight away but they were grubbier than they could be. “The bugs can end up on your hands which is a breeding ground and be passed back to your cell phone. They can be transferred back and forth and eventually you could catch something nasty. “What this shows is how easy it is to come into contact with bacteria. People see toilet flushes as being something dirty to touch but they have less bacteria than used mobile phones and accessories.

“People need to be mindful of that by observing good hygiene themselves and among others who they pass the mobile handset to when looking at photos, for example.”

SMS Marketing – Fruitful for Some but Annoying to Many

Advertising and attaining extensive consumer reach for any corporate, could never have been made easier than the way it is today. As several SMS services and solutions providing firms send text messages to mobile phones of end-users on behalf of corporate organizations. Enabling these organizations to convey their advertising or promotional messages with ease. The next-to-nothing cost of sending these SMSes and the kind of reach that it fetches, is really surprising.

Millions of marketing text messages are sent daily in Pakistan. Which is really frustrating many of the mobile phone users in the country. This new way of promoting business is really growing rapidly internationally. Such Organizations that are selling SMS marketing softwares and services should realize that while this is a fantastic and reasonable means of communication, mobile phone users deem these frequent spam SMSes as annoying, frustrating and bothersome. Consumers who are driven quite close to craziness by the recurring text messages would repeatedly curse themselves for having filled up a lucky-contest form with their mobile numbers due to which they’d be bombarded with spam texts.

Digital and mobile Marketing

This irritation and annoyance is transferred to the organization whose name appears on the mobile phone screen and hence leads the consumer to bar any SMSes or calls from that particular firm. This automatically lowers the organization’s brand value and results in bad marketing and advertising. Marketers can, however, get this right if through SMS marketing they can provide consumers specific and comprehensible information that not only connects to the users’ emotional values but also appeals to their financial needs. All mobile marketing, if followed duly and if create value, will not be treated as spam after all.

The SMS Services and Solutions Providing Firms

 In spite of the fact that mobile marketing industry is currently enjoying rapid growth, it is only a matter of time before the mobile service providers start incurring huge deficits. These firms enjoyed larger profit margin per SMS and hence underwent high-profit period, but with SMS rates dropping shockingly, firms are expected to endure lesser amount of profits with smaller profit margins. In addition to this, there also exists an unorganized section of SMS marketing companies who eat up 60% of the share of text messages that are sent. To face competition and to survive in a low-profit generating industry should be a tough challenge for these service providers. SMS marketing is thus, fruitful to some, but annoying to many!

Are You Abiding by Mobile Phone Etiquette?

 

Many of us consider mobile phones as life savers, but rude mobile phone users are the thorns in our sides. Private conversations, arguments, details about how a meeting went, or intimate knowledge of what’s in a stranger’s refrigerator at home are all things that all eavesdroppers can do.

What is needed to be done is that we should follow some etiquette when using a mobile phone, after all, most people who are annoying don’t realize that they’re annoying everyone around. Some people have got so fed up with rude mobile phone users that they turned to illegal mobile phone jammers. These devices knock mobile phone users off their lines and prevent a reconnection with the mobile tower until the user wanders out of range. The rate at which jammers are selling speaks to the lack of manners among the mobile phone users.

What are Mobile Phone Manners, After all? Mobile phone etiquette involves following some simple guidelines of common courtesy when using a mobile phone in public, designed to make public places more enjoyable for all. Its just a matter of being considerate of others, which pays off for everyone!

Do not forget to abide by when using a mobile phone:

1. Keep a 10-feet (3 meter) distance between you and anyone else whenever you talk to someone on your mobile phone. No exceptions.

2. Don’t Talk too loudly: Generally you don’t have to shout in the microphone to be heard on the other end.

3. Don’t Multi-task: Don’t make calls while driving, shopping, in banks, waiting in line, or doing pretty much anything that involves interacting with other human beings.

4. Don’t Talk in Any Enclosed Spaces: Even if you’re more than 10 feet away from anyone. Others can still hear you talking on your mobile phone (because it’s an enclosed space) and usually, they’re forced to just sit there and listen. Especially, do not make or attend calls when you are in bathrooms, elevators, waiting rooms, auditoriums and public transports.

5. Places Where to Turn-Off Mobile Ring-tone: Don’t even let your mobile phone ring in any of the following settings; Job interviews, Meetings, Libraries, Museums, Worship places, School, During Lectures, Courtrooms, During live performances, Funerals, Weddings, in Cinema halls, at Work Place etc.

6. Don’t Use Mobile During Meals: :Don’t use your mobile phone when having a meal with someone. Ideally, you should turn it off entirely. If you’re anticipating an important call, let the person you’re with, know beforehand that you’re expecting a call that you’ll need to take. No matter what, don’t hold a conversation at the table; step away, follow Step 1, and don’t stay away any longer than you would for a bathroom break. Never, ever text at the table, even if the conversation died down.

7. No Mobile Phone When at Movies: Turn off your mobile phone at the movie theater. Even if your mobile phone is on vibrate mode, people can hear it during quiet parts of the movie. And even if they can’t, the light from your mobile phone’s screen is very distracting. Don’t check the time, don’t check your text messages; just turn it off until the movie is over. Mobile Phones should be turned off in movie theaters, playhouses, observatories or any other public place that creates an atmosphere to transport the imagination of the audience. People pay good money to be entertained and a ringer breaks the illusion.

8. Practice Texting: When you’re in an enclosed space, or you can’t put yourself 10 feet out of everyone’s way, it’s inappropriate to talk but it’s acceptable to receive and send text messages. In such cases, keep the following rules of texting etiquette in mind; Use the vibrate feature instead of an audible text alert. Only text when you’re standing still or sitting out of anyone’s way. Don’t text while you walk or drive. Don’t text while doing anything that requires you to be attentive. A good example would be while waiting at an intersection for the pedestrian signal. Don’t text in a meeting or conference when you should be attentive to the guest speaker.