For some people, using the bathroom is considered “me time.” It’s a time when no one can bother you, you can take a break from school or work, and if on your phone, you can scroll through various social media feeds, reply to text messages, and send a funny bathroom snap (if that’s your thing). Although it may seem productive to take your phone to the bathroom, you are actually putting yourself at some serious health risks.

Toilets, especially public ones, are covered in various germs, bacteria, and fecal matter. Throughout the day, these are spread through the bathroom stall from flushing and from touching the locks, doors, handles, toilet paper racks, and anything else you might touch in the bathroom. The most contaminated surfaces are the door and toilet handles, the faucet, and the floor.

“When you flush the toilet, water with feces and urine sprays about six feet in every direction. The aerosols increase with every flush, so if it’s a public bathroom, there is dirty toilet water coating everything, especially the toilet paper dispenser, because it’s right next to the toilet bowl,” Professor at the University of Arizona Dr. Kelly Reynolds said.

When you bring your phone to the bathroom, your phone is being contaminated with all the bacteria and germs that call the bathroom stall home. If you set it down, it gets contaminated. If you touch the handle or the lock and then touch your phone, it gets contaminated. If you touch your phone before washing your hands, guess what? It gets contaminated.

So, lets say you’ve taken your phone to the bathroom with you. You set it down while you do your business (this is where contamination takes place) then you pick it up, wash your hands, and pick it back up off the counter to carry out with you. You’re safe, right? Wrong.

Once your phone has been contaminated, unless you are dousing it in hand sanitizer or anti-bacterial soap, it stays contaminated. So when you go to eat that slice of pizza or sandwich later and you’re on Snapchat at the same time, you are transferring the bacteria and fecal matter from your phone, back to your hands, onto your food and into your mouth. Yum!

“I always take my phone to the bathroom with me, but I always wash my hands, so I thought I was safe. I guess I’ll start keeping it in my pocket while I’m in the bathroom and cleaning it every so often to avoid germs from elsewhere,” Dillon Sawyer, a junior at Pace NYC said.

It is in your best interest to put your phone away for five minutes while you use the bathroom and prevent contamination from any bacteria that may be present. If you absolutely cannot put your phone away while going to the bathroom, you should absolutely sanitize it twice when you are done.