The American Society of Microbiologist, following a presumably teaching lab infection of an undergraduate student, now recommends no "personal items" including phones, pens, etc. be used in the teaching laboratory. Here is one reference:
We've implemented that in our microbiology teaching lab. To accommodate this we've purchased and placed calculators to be used instead of phones (in disposable plastic baggies), lab pens, lab copies of activities, etc. in the lab. The biggest challenge to "no cell phones" is their desire to use their phone cameras for snapping pictures of plates, cultures, notes on the white board, etc. In particular, the optics on the cameras are now quite good in taking pictures of slides _through_ the oculars of microscopes, something they want to document for studying later.
We've not set up similar restrictions for other biology laboratories nor for research laboratories. University regulations supposedly prohibit earbud type devices when working; it is generally enforced in teaching laboratories but I see it in research labs enough to guess that it is low on the priority of things for faculty to worry about.
Jeff
