How Can I Sanitize My Smartphone and My House?

We all know our smartphones are disgusting. We take them everywhere—including the bathroom—which means we lay them down everywhere. We breathe on them. We touch them with dirty hands. But you can’t exactly soap up your smartphone as you sing happy birthday for twenty seconds, so how do you get your potentially-pathogen-carrying phone clean?

In a study published in 2018, researchers tested six different ways of sanitizing your smart phone against bacterial pathogens: two different UV-C devices (that's devices that use ultraviolet or UV light), alcohol spray containing 70% ethanol, ammonium disinfectant spray, wipes containing sodium hypochlorite (like Clorox bleach wipes), and delicate-task wipes marketed for cleaning electronics. They found all six methods reduced the number of bacteria detected on the smartphones. 

UV-C sanitizers were the most effective, removing more than 90% of the bacteria. Evidence shows the light effectively kills viruses as well.

But some methods were more effective than others. Both UV-C sanitizers were the most effective, removing more than 90% of the bacteria. The alcohol spray, bleach wipes, and ammonium spray were next, eliminating between 80-90% of the bacteria. Least effective were the delicate task wipes at less than 65% gone. Note this particular study was focused on bacteria, but the evidence shows the light effectively kills viruses as well.

The types of UV sterilizers used in this study are easily purchased online and for reasonably affordable prices. You can also purchase UV sterilizing wands that can be used to cover surfaces of any shape. I got one last year as a joke for a friend who is the tidiest person I know, and now, as hand sanitizer flies off the shelves, that wand may be the best thing I’ve ever gotten him.

Look for devices that provide doses of UV-C light at 60 mJ/cm² (that’s a measure of energy per unit area) or more. Read the instructions for the appropriate exposure time and distance you should place between the wand and the object you wish to sterilize. 

How does UV light work to sanitize my stuff?

So, how does UV light sterilization work? A certain kind of ultraviolet light—that’s light at shorter wavelengths or higher frequencies than our eyes can see—known as UV-C light actually ...

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