General

How clean is your phone?

Are you washing your hands properly several times a day? Well done. Have you ever thought about your phone’s hygiene? According to studies, we touch our phones and smartphones around 2,500 times a day on average. And although we’ve been scrubbing our hands raw with soap and disinfectant, our phones often remain uncleaned.

These devices, however, are among the biggest virus spreaders and bacterial sources in the ofice. While your company administrators ensure that your STARFACE telephone system remains virus-free, you need to take care of the end devices yourself if in doubt (and despite frequent office cleaning initiated by your employer). Experts even recommend cleaning twice a day.

At the beginning of April 2020, the magazine Stern published a few tips on how you could protect yourself from Corona viruses on your cell phone and clean it thoroughly:

First make sure that your cell phone is not connected to a power source. Never spray detergent on the display, as it can land in various openings on the device and cause damage. Instead, it is best to moisten a soft, lint-free microfiber cloth with disinfectant, and wipe all the surfaces with it. At the moment, it’s important to clean your phone with alcohol-based disinfectant, as this contains at least 70% isopropyl alcohol. After cleaning, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly.

The DECT telephone manufacturer Gigaset has tested a whole range of medical disinfectant for their phones and found the following to be suitable:

  • Sterillium
  • Ecolab Epicare Des
  • Ecolab Incidin Rapid (2%)
  • Ecolab Spitacid
  • Dr. Schnell Climo Sept
  • Dr. Schnell Samtasan
  • Lysoform AHD 2000
  • Desderman Pure

VoIP telephone manufacturer Snom recommends a dry, anti-static cloth to clean their phones and advises against the use of liquid detergents, as these can destroy the surface and the internal electronics of the phone.

AF International, the international specialist for PC, workplace and office cleaining products, confirms that the
ABSCW50T disinfection wipes from the product series Anti-bac+ are also effective against Coronavirus. The wipes are suitable for desk surfaces, keyboards, phones and much more besides.

Before the Corona pandemic, many of us paid too little attention to the hygiene of the devices in our offices. Now we’re all sensitized and can be grateful that various resources do indeed exist to fight viruses and bacteria. We just need to use them regularly.