Headphones worn for one hour of bacteria multiply five times should be cleaned regularly

Most citizens never wash headphones
Before conducting the experiment, the reporter conducted a random interview with the citizens on the street. Ms. Li told reporters that she likes to wear headphones and listen to music. Her use of headphones is also very high, but she has never cleaned headphones. “Shouldn’t there be a lot of bacteria?”

Mr. Zhang also said that he never cleaned earplugs. "Anyway, earplugs are for their own use. They shouldn't be so dirty, so I don't think it is necessary." However, Mr. Zhang also asked questions: "If I want to clean up, what should I do? Do you want to clean up? Use clean water or a special disinfectant?"

Similar doubts existed among most of the people that the reporter interviewed randomly. Only a few citizens said that if they saw dirt on their headphones, they would wipe it with paper towels or wipes, but there was no customary cleaning.

In-ear headphones are more sensitive to bacteria than in-ear headphones
Experimental props: Three pairs of used headphones, one ear ear style number 1, two ears in-ear style number 2, three-ear ear style.

Experimental tools: sterile saline, sterile pipettes, sterile petri dishes, medical sterilization cotton swabs, etc.
In-ear headphones can enter the external auditory canal
The reporter sent the three headphones of Mr. Zhao to the Department of Clinical Laboratory of the CDC in Xihu District. Among them, two sets of earphones were used. When they were used, the card was inserted on the inner ear wheel and would not be probed into the external auditory canal. The other in-ear earphone could be inserted directly into the ear canal. The external auditory canal is in contact with the skin on the ear canal. Which kind of headphones hide more bacteria? Saying no evidence, the experiment proved.

The experimenter first disinfected the No. 1 earphone, then smeared the earphone with a cotton swab, put the cotton swab into a test tube, and injected 10 ml of 0.9% sterile physiological saline into the test tube and oscillated. The bacteria on the cotton swab were evenly mixed in physiological saline. Afterwards, the experimenter removed 1 ml of the solution from the test tube, poured it onto a sterile plate, and added the medium.

In the No. 2 and No. 3 headphones, before the experiment began, the experimenter wore the left ear of both headphones for one hour, while the right ear remained the same. Afterwards, the experimenter also sampled No. 2 and No. 3 headphones. After all the 3 headsets were properly sampled, the experimenter placed 5 plates in a 36°C incubator for bacterial culture.

Wearing bacteria for 1 hour nearly 5 times
After 48 hours of cultivation, the reporter saw that 4 out of 5 plates had only white spots. The experimenter explained that this was a colony formed after 48 hours of cultivation, and there were as many white spots as there were colonies. The reporter found that the only thing that did not have white spots was the sampling on the headphones after disinfection.

Later, through the calculation of the experimenter, the No. 1 earphone was aseptically dropped; the left ear of the No. 2 earphone was a sample after wearing for 1 hour, 120 colonies, the right ear was an untreated earphone, and the colony was 25; and the No. 3 earphone was also a left ear. After 1 hour of wearing, 25 colonies were used, and the number of untreated right ear colonies was 9. It can be seen that in-ear headphones are more sensitive to bacteria than in-ear headphones. After wearing the in-ear headphones for an hour, the bacteria were nearly five times more proliferating than before; when the in-ear headphones were worn for one hour, the bacteria had multiplied nearly three times.

According to the experimenter, the bacteria usually reproduce asexually with a simple two-splitting method. The split time is generally 20-30 minutes. Therefore, from this point of view, wearing one hour of headphones, the bacteria can multiply up to 5 times, and if you do not wash it for a long time, it will accelerate the growth of bacteria.

Headphones do not clean up carefully for a long time
The person in charge of the inspection department of the CDC said that the earphones will not adhere to many bacteria when they are not cleaned for a long time. Don’t despise these bacteria. Although people always feel that they haven’t cleaned their headphones for a long time, they have no effect on the body. However, this varies from person to person. When the body's resistance is good, they do not make people sick. If an individual's resistance drops, they can make people sick. Therefore, for their own health, they must regularly clean and sterilize personal objects such as headphones. Also, their own headphones are for their own use. Do not use them for others, so as not to generate more bacteria.

As for the cleaning method, the person in charge said that the public can disinfect the wet wipes with good quality, and can also wipe with a cotton swab moistened with alcohol. The specific operation depends on the quality of the headphones to select the disinfection method.

China Labor Insurance Network