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Is it unhygienic to share earphones?

C

cowardescent

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 29, 2017
Messages
401
This girl in school gave me hear earphones to borrow. She has another pair so she lent me those. They're good quality however were quite dirty and I just put them on. My friends were saying that's disgusting and I could get a serious ear infection from them. How likely is this?
 
It’s low risk. It’s unlikely, but some people have infectious bacteria and fungi in their ear wax, so the risk isn’t zero.

An alcohol wipe down should leave you good to go!!
 
It's also unhygienic to touch people. How we've evolved for millions of years with this constant threat in our lives, God only knows. Just be sure to never have sex, because that is truly disgusting... =D
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
It's also unhygienic to touch people. How we've evolved for millions of years with this constant threat in our lives, God only knows. Just be sure to never have sex, because that is truly disgusting... =D
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Yeah that was my initial reaction too. :)
 
A lot of times we label a certain activity or action as unhealthy because of very tiny potential risks, it's good to always consider the bigger picture that you are host to trillions of bacteria and micro organisms that are living in, on and around you in a symbiotic relationship with your own cells and each other. Invading bacteria are actually much more rare and your own bacteria (both benign and beneficial) will compete with invading harmful bacteria naturally. Using anti bacterial or sanitizing wipes and sprays is great but avoid personal contact on your skin unless it is expressly made for skin contact. Some harsh industrial sanitizer will remove a host of your bacteria and leave you open for invading bacteria.

Our current bacteria control methods are a bit low brow with a kill everything approach which is questionable in long term effectiveness. Future targeted sanitizer sprays hopefully will be designed with specific threats in mind.
 
Yeah I always cringe so bad when I see those Lysol commercials that urge mothers to sanitize every surface their children would ever touch. People evolved to come into contact with bacteria, we didn't have antibacterials until very, very recently. I'm thankful that my mom let me be a dirty kid. I remember eating dirt and eating ants (I went through a phase of eating ants, I don't know why but I still remember how they taste). Yeah I got sick sometimes but in general I have a very robust immune system and hardly ever get sick as an adult. If you shelter yourself from "contaminants" too much, your body doesn't learn how to fight them off and you end up a sickly person.
 
Xorkoth said:
Yeah I always cringe so bad when I see those Lysol commercials that urge mothers to sanitize every surface their children would ever touch. People evolved to come into contact with bacteria, we didn't have antibacterials until very, very recently. I'm thankful that my mom let me be a dirty kid. I remember eating dirt and eating ants (I went through a phase of eating ants, I don't know why but I still remember how they taste). Yeah I got sick sometimes but in general I have a very robust immune system and hardly ever get sick as an adult. If you shelter yourself from "contaminants" too much, your body doesn't learn how to fight them off and you end up a sickly person.
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I actually heard a doctor say that mothers should let newborns/infants play on the New York Subway because it's coated with bacteria and that would prime their immune system.
 
cduggles said:
It’s low risk. It’s unlikely, but some people have infectious bacteria and fungi in their ear wax, so the risk isn’t zero.

An alcohol wipe down should leave you good to go!!
Click to expand...

My ex's kid used to use my ear buds. I always wiped them with alcohol, not out of infection worry but to remove any ear wax
 
cowardescent said:
I actually heard a doctor say that mothers should let newborns/infants play on the New York Subway because it's coated with bacteria and that would prime their immune system.
Click to expand...

That's probably a little excessive, but when parents don't let their kids play in the dirt for fear of germs, it leads to sickly children with tons of allergies.
 
I don't share mine because I grosses me out to think of someone else's ear wax going onto the earphone and then me sticking it in my ear.
On the odd occasion I do share an earphone, I'll always give it a quick once-over with a wet wipe.
 
cowardescent said:
This girl in school gave me hear earphones to borrow. She has another pair so she lent me those. They're good quality however were quite dirty and I just put them on. My friends were saying that's disgusting and I could get a serious ear infection from them. How likely is this?
Click to expand...
Highly likely,that's how u catch aids.
 
You mean you didn't use your holstered 70% isopropyl alcohol to clean them before use?

Drac's correct, probably gonna get the gonachlasyphilherpilaids
 
To be honest, I wouldn't even think about there being a problem sharing earphones with a friend. Probably even a stranger, unless they just looked really dirty.
 
You can't get AIDS from sharing headphones. Or hep. Ear mites, scabies though, yeah
 
F.U.B.A.R. said:
It's also unhygienic to touch people. How we've evolved for millions of years with this constant threat in our lives, God only knows. Just be sure to never have sex, because that is truly disgusting... =D
Click to expand...
because we divide, in half, like a cell, to survive. procreation. 😁
 
My generation survived public payphones. I think you guys will be ok.


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