The coronavirus outbreak is already a global threat. If you want to know how to disinfect your mobile to eliminate all kinds of bacteria, we give you the steps to follow.
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| How to disinfect your mobile phone from viruses and bacteria? |
Among the everyday objects that spend more hours in our hands are smartphones and keyboards, making them favorite places for germs and a perfect breeding ground for transmitting threats. For example, the screen of a phone has 30 times more germs than those found in a toilet bowl, according to a study by the University of Barcelona.
In this way, we must also focus on these types of devices that we use daily with our hands and on a recurring basis, such as the mobile phone or the keyboard of our computer, but how to disinfect your mobile phone thoroughly and safely ?
Screen: high risk
Germs find the perfect ecosystem on the screen of our smartphones. For example, the dreaded coronavirus can stay up to 9 days on surfaces like metal, glass, or plastic, according to an analysis published in the Journal Hospital Infection.
The same publication gives us the recipe to disinfect these surfaces using a solution with a concentration between 62 and 71% ethanol or the use of classic hospital disinfectants with 0.5% hypochlorite reduces the infectious character of the coronavirus with an application one minute.
In our case, it is not recommended to use alcohol because it will destroy the oleophobic layer of our smartphone; the one that prevents all fingerprints from remaining on the screen.
For a daily cleaning, just follow the recommendations given by the manufacturers. Apple, for example, recommends using a small cloth that is used for camera lenses.
Although we can always, with great care in ports and buttons, soak a cloth with soap and water and have another on hand to dry immediately. For the rear areas or the edges we can use isopropyl alcohol specially made to work with electronics. The latter can also be used to clean the computer screen or monitor.
The next level is to buy an ultraviolet device to remove any trace of virus or microbial life by radiation. There are already wireless headphones in the market with cases that incorporate ultraviolet radiation, but there are specific devices for smartphones.
Care in the office
For those of us who work in front of a screen, the keyboard and the mouse are the other two inseparable companions. In favor they have to be much less delicate than a smartphone in use and we can use more expeditious measures.
For example, one of the methods that we can use is compressed air bottles. Mainly with the keyboard that usually accumulates dirt under the keys and it is impossible to access without removing them or giving it a good jet of pressurized air.
If we do not want to spend money on the bottles we can go to any gas station that has an inflation service. We direct the jet of compressed air to the slits and remove solid particles in a very short time.
For a more thorough cleaning we can use the ethanol-based solution recommended by the Journal Hospital Infection on a drained cloth. It is enough to put three parts of 96% ethyl alcohol (that of the wounds) and one of water to achieve the necessary concentration.
Even if we can, it is advisable to remove all the keys and clean them individually thoroughly. On the other hand, if our keyboard is integrated into a laptop we can use a stick and apply the solution.
In some online stores we find a semi-solid gel-like mass that promises to penetrate all the slits to adsorb dirt. Particularly I have tried one -of the cheapest- and they do not replace a good jet of compressed air from the bottle or from the gas station.
When we have disinfected our smartphones, tablets and computers we must maintain strict personal hygiene. Cleaning hands with soap and water when we have access and having a bottle of disinfecting gel in the backpack or bag to clean ourselves when we are away from home.
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