The phones are dirty. The average phone is seven to 10 times dirtier than most porcelain thrones, depending on who you ask, and one in six is supposedly contaminated with fecal matter. If you check your phone about once every 10 minutes, you are exposing yourself to a lot of germs.
If your phone is starting to get gross, Apple, Google, and major Android manufacturers recommend wiping it down with a soft, lint-free cloth, a hint of warm, soapy water, and a toothbrush. It is very important to be careful with the cleaning of any electronic device, as excess humidity can cause serious damage if it gets into a port or crack. The screen is more prone to smudges and fingerprints if it is stripped of its protective coating.
You don't have a way of knowing if you missed a spot when you wiped your phone down. There has to be a better way.
That is the general idea behind UV phone sanitisers.
Sanitising devices that use UV light to kill pathogens and superbugs have been around in the medical field for decades now, but consumer-friendly adaptions have gained significant popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A UV phone sanitiser is a small plastic or metal box containing a couple of UV bulbs or lamps, which shine onto your device during the disinfection cycle. The most obvious draw is the fact that you just pop your phone into the chamber, close the lid, and let it do its thing for about 10 minutes.
Before sanitising your device, make sure you take it out of its case and run it through separately.
Artificial light sources can be used to recreate UV light, which can be seen in the form of sunlight. There are different types of UV rays.
The UV-A rays have the longest wavelength. These can be found in tanning beds, bug zappers, and in the blacklights of your club.
The UV-B rays have shorter wavelength. These are used in tanning beds to help the skin produce vitamins D3 and UVB.
The UV-C rays have the shortest wavelength. They can damage the DNA of the microbes. Either this kills them or prevents them from reproducing.
UV-C rays are referred to specifically in all mentions of UV light.
UV light is more dangerous to a microbe than a human, but the FDA still recommends caution around it. Don't look directly at a UVC lamp source.
The FDA says that UV light can degrade plastic and that you need hours of continuous exposure to do any damage to your phone.
Steven Winkelman, PCMag's consumer electronics analyst, has already covered this topic in a thorough explainer. Ziff Davis is the publisher of PCMag. The whole thing will not be re-examined, but the main thing is this: Kind of.
The kinds of UV light that are being sold to the public are not as good as the ones used in hospitals.
The FDA says that many of the UVC lamps sold for home use are of low dose, so it may take longer exposure to a given surface area to potentially provide effective inactivation of a bacteria or virus.
It is important to note that while most manufacturers say their phone sanitisers are 99% effective against common germs, very few can back up their claims with third-party lab testing.
We already know that hand-washing, wearing masks, and getting vaccinations are all free or cheap ways to keep us germ-free. All things considered, UV Sanitation should be your second line of defense against Viruses andbacteria.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have confirmed that UV light is capable of destroying the virus that causes COVID-19, but that also comes with a pretty big caveat.
The CDC states that transmission from contaminated surfaces is not thought to be a common occurrence.
If you want to protect yourself from COVID, you should get a face mask and a jab.
We searched high and low for the best UV sanitisers. We have tried to find something for every budget, but it is worth checking out everything in this list before making a decision.
The best UV phone sanitisers are here.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
