While walking back from the bathroom and sitting down in my office I looked around and noticed all the devices that I touch. We are currently witnessing a epidemic of influenza and because it’s a clear and present danger to our health I’m spending more and more time considering ways to avoid it. Obviously there are all the classic things one can do, frequent hand-washing, sanitization, Vitamin C (Placebo anyone?), Tea (Paging Dr. Placebo), supplements (Will Dr. Placebo PLEASE ANSWER THE PHONE!) and as I was sitting back considering all the ways you could acquire an active influenza virus it struck me. Much like wondering how invading Aliens were jaunting past the razorwire like it wasn’t there only to find out they were skittering along in the drop ceiling – a hidden vector of infection: Touch Devices.

Ever since Apple (and others, of course) developed tablet and phone technology in the modern sense, mostly iPads, iPhones, Nook HD’s and MacBooks people have been touching these things and not really paying much attention to what all that touching means. If you wash your hands then your hands are clean until you touch an object, then you have doubt. Did that surface that I touched harbor a virus or bacteria that could make me sick? You don’t know. Obviously life goes on merrily and has ever since these devices have been in our grubby little clutches, but still, just to think about it gave me pause. I was using the bathroom, washing my hands, then touching my iPad. Dirty, clean… dirty? I don’t know. It’s the doubt that grips me.

There is one chemical that I know will disinfect non-porous surfaces and most likely will not damage those surfaces and that’s isopropyl alcohol. So at work I have asked my S3 to follow a new protocol during these months when these viruses are on the loose and we’re in the trenches when it comes to being vectors ourselves because we touch a lot of things that others touch. So now, at work, whenever we see an iPad, an iPhone, or a MacBook we grab a microfiber cloth, wet it with alcohol and wipe down the entire surface. Each time. It’s a lot of wiping and a lot of alcohol, but what if we kill a virus that otherwise would have made the epidemic worse? Isn’t it worth the little bit of time and effort to kill a bad thing early on than have to suffer its effects once we’ve succumbed? I think so.

If you have non-porous surfaces that you touch very frequently, like we do, I strongly recommend wiping things with a rag soaked in alcohol. You may very well perform one action which could stem the tide and spare you and the people around you the danger and inconvenience of this particularly nasty influenza virus.