Eideard

One in six UK mobile phones are contaminated with faecal bacteria due to poor personal hygiene, scientists have found.

Researchers said that 16% of the devices were contaminated with E coli, which can cause food poisoning, most probably because people fail to properly wash their hands after going to the toilet. The study…also found that Britons tend to lie about their personal hygiene…

Dr Val Curtis, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “This study provides more evidence that some people still don’t wash their hands properly, especially after going to the toilet.

“I hope the thought of having E coli on their hands and phones encourages them to take more care in the bathroom – washing your hands with soap is such a simple thing to do but there is no doubt it saves lives.”

Birmingham has the highest proportion of bacteria-ridden phones (41%) but the highest level of E coli contamination was found in London (28%).

But the scientists also found a north-south divide in the levels of bacteria found on phones, with northern cities the dirtiest. Glasgow was the worst with average bacterial levels on phones and hands nine times higher than in Brighton…

Dr Ron Cutler, of Queen Mary, University of London, said: “While some cities did much better than others, the fact that E coli was present on phones and hands in every location shows this is a nationwide problem.

“People may claim they wash their hands regularly but the science shows otherwise.”

BTW, today, 15th October is Global Handwashing Day.

I doubt anyone in the US knows that, either. Or washes their hands anymore often.

A suspicious white substance in an airplane bathroom?

It could be anthrax, could be explosive residue or — as authorities in California learned Friday — it could be toilet paper.

The white dust appeared in the back lavatory of Alaska Airline’s Flight 508 soon after it took off Friday afternoon from Seattle, said Bobbie Eagan, a spokeswoman for the carrier. Sometime during the 1,000-mile flight, the flight’s crew notified authorities about the unknown substance and asked for help.

Fire department crews, law enforcement officers and hazardous materials experts circled the plane soon after it touched down shortly after 4 p.m. at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus.

The aircraft’s 151 passengers and six crew members deplaned, and authorities climbed on board. They included members of the Orange County Fire Authority, who along with members of the county’s sheriff department tested the suspicious substance.

Capt. Greg McKeown, the fire department’s spokesman, said that authorities eventually determined that white dust actually was a “cellulose paper material” — or, in other words, what appeared to be toilet paper.

Phew. Another critical incident for Homeland Security successfully resolved. Probably only cost how much? $10,000? $20,000? Good thing we can afford all this security, eh?

The idea is this:

When a traveler walks into an airport restroom, he or she will see, over the sinks, where the mirrors are expected to be, big, vertical display ads for products. Some of the ads are still images; some are moving videos.

When the traveler walks to the sink to wash his or her hands, the ads become mirrors — except that in front of the traveler’s eyes the advertisements grow smaller, and move up to a corner of the mirrors.

Thus, the traveler is looking at his or her own face in the mirror, and also at the advertisement.

“We have chosen to be in bathrooms,” said Brian Reid, the founder and president of Mirrus, the Huntersville, North Carolina, company that manufactures and markets the mirrors. “Bathrooms are often the last places people stop before they board an airplane, and the first places they visit when they get off an airplane…”

While the traveler is looking both at himself or herself, and at the ad in the corner of the mirror, “We track in real time how long [the traveler] is standing there,” to determine how long the ad is being seen.

There is no camera inside the mirrors, he said, so no one at a remote location is looking at the person in the restroom. The sensors track only which advertisements are being seen, how many times, and for how long.

Extra creepy!

French firefighters have freed an elderly woman who was locked in her bathroom for nearly three weeks.

Police said the 69-year-old woman had been stuck in her windowless bathroom in the town of Epinay-sous-Senart for 20 days.

She became trapped in the bathroom when a doorknob fell off while she was inside, police said. She repeatedly banged on her door and cried for help, but the neighbors apparently thought workmen were the source of the noise.

French media reported that the woman survived her ordeal by drinking warm water from the bathroom tap.

Neighbors grew concerned and alerted authorities after going several weeks without seeing the woman.

Finally!

A Qatari diplomat who was questioned by federal investigators after an in-flight disturbance has been released and will not face charges, officials said.

Mohammed Al-Madadi has “been given clearance to travel back to Washington,” said Alison Bradley, a spokeswoman for the Brown Lloyd James public relations firm, which represents the Qatari Embassy. A federal law enforcement official told CNN Al-Madadi will not face charges…

The passenger was in a lavatory for a long time and may have been smoking, a U.S. official told CNN. He also may have made an “unfortunate comment” referring to a shoe bomb when questioned on the plane, the official said.

Fran Townsend, a homeland security official in President George W. Bush’s administration, told CNN that the person involved was a Qatari diplomat and that her sources said the incident may have been a misunderstanding. She said law enforcement officials examined the man’s shoes and were satisfied there were no explosives.

Dealing with an uptight air marshal in the middle of a flight – and making a smart-ass joke about how “I couldn’t get my shoe to ignite” is not the brightest decision – even with a diplomatic passport.