Unclean Bags & Phones: Table Hygiene Risks

When visiting a restaurant, the question often arises: Where should I put my handbag?

For many people, especially with expensive bags, simply placing them on the floor is not an option. The result: They end up on the table, often just a few centimeters away from the food.

As do cell phones, which are often within reach even during meals.

On Instagram, bags from Chanel, Gucci and Co. are actually showcased on the restaurant table.

But how hygienic is it to put the bag, which is repeatedly touched with unwashed hands, next to the food?

Hugo Sax, an expert in infectious diseases and infection prevention at the University of Zurich, explains to Nau.ch: “In general, germs can be transmitted from surface to surface, surface to skin or skin to skin.”

But you always have to ask yourself what the probability is that a transmission will end in a “medically relevant event”.

Airborne transmission route more relevant

In the case of the handbag on the table, this is “very, very unlikely,” says Sax.

Because the handbag probably contains mostly the same bacteria that are already found on the owner’s hands. The same applies to cell phones.

“It is unlikely that someone else will touch the handbag,” says Sax.

But even if: “There is a lot of exchange between people anyway.”

In this context, touching someone else’s handbag is comparable to activating a door latch or shaking hands as a greeting.

The expert notes: “It can of course happen that viruses can also be transmitted via surfaces. But the airborne transmission route is much more efficient and relevant for respiratory viruses.”

If you sit opposite each other, for example in a restaurant, you automatically exchange germs.

Touching a cell phone is as “bad” as hugging

Unlike many viruses in our latitudes, the Ebola virus, for example, is not transmitted via air, but rather via body fluids.

The consequence: “If someone had Ebola and touched someone else’s cell phone, that would be a dangerous transmission route.” With our viruses, however, that is as “bad” as a hug.

Basically, there are a lot of bacteria floating around – and replacing them could also be beneficial.

“It’s even healthy when you come into contact with new types of bacteria,” explains Sax.

Germs on surfaces are “unproblematic” for healthy people

Microbiologist Giovanna Spielmann-Prada from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) also says: In principle, objects such as handbags or cell phones can carry different microorganisms. In normal everyday life, however, these “do not represent a relevant risk of infection”.

Because: “Most of the germs that we find on such surfaces come from our own environment and are not a problem for healthy people.”

In the “bag on the restaurant table” scenario, the risk is “very low” from a hygiene perspective. Spielmann-Prada explains: “Bags do come into contact with different surfaces, but chains of infection via such objects have not been proven in everyday life.”

It is much more a question of etiquette or a lack of space than a hygiene issue.

“Table surface–handbag–hand” chain unlikely

The same thing with cell phones: “Mobile phones can also carry germs – just like our hands. The same applies here: This does not automatically mean a health risk.”

The microbiologist finally gives the all-clear: “For typical infectious diseases, transmission via everyday objects such as bags or cell phones plays no role. The vast majority of pathogens are transmitted through direct contact, droplets or contaminated food.”

Diseases via the “table surface–handbag–hand” chain are therefore to be classified as very unlikely from a scientific perspective.