Beware of hidden bacteria in headphones

Recently, online headsets are a hotbed of bacteria. Once headphones are worn, the air in the ears is difficult to circulate and the temperature rises. The bacteria on the surface of the earplugs will therefore multiply rapidly, which is not conducive to ear health.

Most citizens never wash headphones

Most citizens like to wear headphones to listen to music. The frequency of using headphones is high, but they have never been cleaned. They generally think that "shouldn't there be a lot of bacteria?"

Some citizens have indicated that they have never cleaned ear plugs. “Anyway, the ear plugs are used by themselves and should not be dirty, so they are not considered necessary.” Only a few citizens said that if they saw something dirty on their headphones, they would wipe them with paper towels or wipes. , but there is no customary cleaning habit.

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.

Experimental staff: Clinical Laboratory of Xihu District, Nanchang City, Ying Yan (Note: The results of this experiment are only responsible for this experiment)

In-ear headphones can enter the external auditory canal

The three headphones of the public Mr. Zhao were sent to the Department of Clinical Laboratory of the CDC in Xihu District. Among them, two sets of earphones were used. When they were used, they were stuck on the inner ear wheel and they could not be probed into the external auditory canal; another pair of in-ear headphones could be directly extended into the external auditory canal. , contact with the skin on the ear canal. Which kind of headphones hide more bacteria? Saying no evidence, the experiment proved.

The experimenter should first disinfect the No. 1 earphone, then smear the earphone with a cotton swab, put the cotton swab into the test tube, and inject 10 ml of 0.9% sterile physiological saline into the test tube and shake it. This allows the bacteria on the swab to be evenly mixed in 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 incubation, 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 only thing that didn't have white spots was 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.

Researcher Ying Yan said that bacteria generally reproduce asexually with a simple two-splitting method. Dividing 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 clinical department of the CDC at the Xihu District said that the earphones will not adhere to many bacteria if they are not cleaned for a long time. Don’t underestimate these bacteria. Although people always feel that washing the headphones for a long time has no effect on the body, this is different from person to person. of. 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 wipes with good quality, and can also wipe with a swab moistened with alcohol. The specific operation depends on the quality of the headphones to select the disinfection method.