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Study Finds Cell Phones Dirtier Than Toilet Seats
ABC reports on a shocking new study has found that cell phones are dirtier than toilet seats.
New research out of the United Kingdom found mobile phones are a technological petri dish for tens of thousands of germs.
Why? Germs multiply in warm places. Between the heat the phones generate and the germs on faces and hands, you've got a bacterial breeding ground.
"You put it in a warm place, you hold it in your hand, you put it in your pocket like I do, it's nice and warm," said microbiologist Chuck Gerba. "Bacteria like that. It can grow in these types of places."
They also tested phones of the Good Morning America crew. The soundman from the Good Morning America show had the dirtiest phone.
"This is the dirtiest phone I have ever tested," Gerba said. "He has somewhere between 10 and 50 million bacteria on his phone. If there is ever a new life form on this planet, it will be on this phone."
Yikes! Surely, this will make GMA's soundman will disinfect his cellphone from now on. Apparently, Motorola also offers a germ fighting phone for those who are now paranoid after reading this entry.
Posted on August 21, 2006
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Study Finds Circumcision Cuts AIDS Risk
WebMD reports that findings from a new study indicate that circumcision could cut HIV risk in men by as much as 60%.
New studies suggest that male circumcision -- the surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis -- could avert hundreds of thousands of new HIV infections and save millions of dollars.
The research, presented at the International AIDS Conference here, builds on last year's finding that circumcised heterosexual men are at least 60% less likely to contract HIV than their uncircumcised counterparts.
Kevin De Cock, MD, director of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDSHIV/AIDS program, says that if the findings hold up, the global agency will issue guidelines backing the procedure for HIV prevention.
Circumcision is by no means an excuse for circumcised men to practice unsafe sex but it does sound like circumcision could provide a valuable reduction in disease risk. Some of the health experts believe the findings are very significant. Kevin De Cock, MD told WebMD that "male circumcision could avert as many as two million new infections over 10 years in sub-Saharan Africa alone."
Posted on August 18, 2006
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Hi-tech Ear Cleanings in Japan
In Japan intense ear cleanings are common but they sound pretty shocking when described by the BBC's Christopher Hogg. Hogg sat in for one of the treatments where you watch the the therapist clean out the inside of your ear on a flat screen television.
As the therapist picks up the tool though you realise what you are watching is the image broadcast from the tiny camera she is holding.
The picture shows your ear getting closer and closer as she approaches, and then in seconds the tool is down the hole and inside.
Now I am sure I do not have to tell you that it is not a pretty sight in there.
Your ear canal is about 3cm long. The woman treating me was determined to remove as much as she could from inside.
As my masked therapist scraped away the detritus I got to watch the whole experience in all its wide-screen horror.
Hogg writes that ear cleaning has typically been a family activity in Japan -- at least until these new hi-tech ear treatments came along.
Posted on May 10, 2006
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