Are cellphones really dirtier than toilet seats? Here's what we found

A rumor that cellphones are 10 times dirtier than toilet seats has circulated online for years.

For example, iterations of the claim have appeared on Instagram, Facebook and Reddit since at least 2019.

The Facebook post's caption read: "Your phone is 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat!" The Instagram post's caption echoed this statistic, and the video itself included a screenshot of a blog post on the University of Arizona website, titled, "Why your cellphone has more germs than a toilet."

In short, it was not possible to find a study that concluded that people's cellphones are 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat. The claim originated from an article published online by a now-defunct website called "MyHealthNewsDaily," which included comments from a microbiologist at the University of Arizona. However, at no point in the article was the expert reported as producing the explicit claim that cellphones are 10 times dirtier than toilet seats.

Below we outline what we found regarding this rumor. 

Origin of the claim

In 2006, Charles Gerba, the aforementioned microbiologist at the University of Arizona, reportedly told NBC in an interview that telephones and keyboards found in the office are particularly dirty. Gerba reiterated this sentiment again in a 2010 TEDx lecture in Phoenix (starting at the 6:28-minute mark of the video below), during which he said that phones are among the "germiest objects" in offices, along with desktops, computer mouses and first-floor elevator buttons.

He told the audience:

Most of us actually work in offices today, but nobody ever really thought about hygiene in offices until about a decade [ago]. We started studying and we realized how incredibly germy the average office is. We found that most people don't clean their office desk until they start sticking to it, and the number of bacteria and viruses we found was really quite surprising. 

The germiest objects in your office, by the way, are going to be your phone, your desktop, your computer keyboard and your computer mouse. So those are some of your germiest objects. 

However, in neither instance did Gerba specify whether he was talking about cellphones or landlines.

In August 2012, the now-defunct health news website MyHealthNewsDaily published an article, titled, "Why Your Cellphone Has More Bacteria Than a Toilet Seat." The report featured the claim that "cellphones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats" and included quotes attributed to Gerba. The article was also published by the "Today" morning TV show (archived), and the following month the University of Arizona published a now-deleted blog post linking to the "Today" article (archived here).

However, Gerba was not reported as making that specific claim himself anywhere in the MyHealthNewsDaily article. Instead, the claim was introduced by the reporter, who wrote: "Cellphones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats, so it shouldn't be surprising that a man in Uganda reportedly contracted Ebola after stealing one." The claim, however, was not attributed to a source. Likewise, the MyHealthNewsDaily report did not cite any studies that concluded that cellphones are 10 times dirtier than toilet seats.

Snopes has contacted Gerba, the University of Arizona and the reporter for comments on the claim and for assistance in locating the scientific research or literature upon which this rumor was based. Neither Gerba nor the university had replied as of publication. The reporter said she was unable to comment, and added that she had written the piece roughly 13 years ago as an intern at MyHealthNewsDaily.

Therefore, it was not possible to conclude whether cellphones are 10 times dirtier than toilet seats based on this article. There have been some studies into how dirty cellphones and toilet seats are; however, none of these studies made comparisons between the two.

Here's the dirt on cellphones

Most of the scientific literature on how dirty cellphones are has focused on the cellphones of health care workers in hospital settings. 

Studies in 2009, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022 across numerous countries all found that cellphones contain potentially harmful bacteria, viruses and fungi, including E. coli, Staphylococcus and those that exhibit antibiotic resistance. 

Additionally, a small-scale study of 27 phones in 2017 found that secondary school students' phones commonly had highly pathogenic bacteria.

Findings like these prompted scientists in 2024 to dub cellphones a "Trojan horse" for infectious germs.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that one in six mobile phones tested in a 2011 British study was shown to be contaminated with fecal matter, likely because people do not wash their hands properly after using the restroom.

Lifting the lid on toilet seats

Researchers have found that the space under a toilet seat can sometimes host pathogens, which can transmit from the bowl during flushing or "during a bout of acute diarrhea" when there is "splashing."

Bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have also been found on toilet seats.

As always, medical experts recommend washing hands thoroughly for the best protection against harmful pathogens.