The recovery of bacteria from the handpiece of a high school telephone. (Practical Stuff!).

* Telephones are a potential vector for infection.

* Past studies of this phenomenon have been done only in hospital environments.

* Those studies generally show that bacteria from a human subject who has used a telephone can be found on telephones in hospitals.

* They also have found the cultured bacteria to be generally non-pathogenic and harmless to a healthy person.

* No similar studies have been done in a school setting.

* School environments facilitate the spread of infection.

* A school is a heavily populated environment with inhabitants who are perpetually in close contact.

* In a school building, the sterilization techniques and antibacterial products found in a hospital often are not present.

* The purpose of this study was to determine whether public phones in a public school can become colonized with potentially pathogenic bacteria, thus enabling the spread of these bacteria through telephone use.

* The data from the study showed two results:

1. There was an overall increase in the total number of bacteria and the number of strains of bacteria from morning to afternoon.

2. The bacteria isolated were not pathogenic.

* Therefore, on the day of the experiment, there was no direct danger to students who used the telephones.

* This experiment represents the bacteriology for one day only.

* Further studies would be needed to establish more comprehensive conclusions.

* Under certain circumstances, bacteria found on telephones could be dangerous to some students.

* To an individual who has a weak immune system, or a cut or abrasion, any bacterial contamination could prove detrimental.