Is Your Cellphone, Tablet, or Laptop Making You ‘Sick?’

You can't watch TV or listen to radio without believing we are becoming germaphobes. But leading tech experts and health providers say all of our digital toys are actually contributing to some common colds and ailments.

This isn't one of those stories about how the heat from a laptop on your legs or pelvis can make men go sterile, but a legitimate look at how cellphones, tablets, laptops and other portable digital devices have become homes for all sorts of germs and bacteria.

NW Cable News reports a number of new companies have sprung up who provide cleaning products to disinfect cellphones and other digital devices. Really, if you think about it, how often do you handle your digital device? It sits on counters, tables and other places in public where you normally wouldn't touch. You let others look at it, it changes hands sometimes but never gets washed or cleaned.

NW Cable News tech expert and blogger Matt Granite took a look at several products designed to not only improve the appearance of your digital device, but eliminate the "pods" of bacteria and germs that inhabit the tool. They especially can live in and around the space between the protective case that shields the device from damage from being dropped or banged.

Granite cautions if you're going to clean your device, look into one of these products. Using common rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer or spray can potentially harm the device, they weren't designed to be coated with Lysol.

According to Granite, he was suffering from a cold he couldn't seem to shake, and his health care provider told him to look at his tech devices, because many people don't realize the hosts and colonies of germs and bacteria they carry without us even knowing it.