Is your mobile phone, iPod or computer keyboard making you sick?

Mobile phones, laptops, iPods and a variety of other consumer-electronics devices have been identified as a major source of infectious illnesses.

Tests carried out by Which?, the UK sister organisation iof Australia's CHOICE, found bacteria on keyboards that could cause food poisoning symptoms such as diarrhoea and other stomach upsets.

One keyboard had 150 times the recommended limit of bacteria, making it five times filthier than a toilet seat that was swabbed for bacteria in the same test.

In addition to the testing, Which? asked more than 4000 members how often they cleaned their PC components.

Forty-six percent of respondents said they cleaned their keyboard less than once a month, including 11% who never cleaned it at all. Only 27% cleaned their monitor monthly and 20% admitted to never cleaning their mouse.