Straight dope on...Toilet flushie-spray

[scottobear]

I read somewhere years ago that when you flush the toilet with the lid open, a plume of contaminated water droplets is ejected into the air and lands on everything in the bathroom, including (yuck) your toothbrush.



I think toilet "aerosol" is probably the more accurate term. Charles Gerba, a professor at the University of Arizona who specializes in environmental microbiology, this means he spends a lot of time crawling around public toilets and has had the cops called on him twice.

In 1975 Professor EGrba published a scientific article describing the little-known phenomenon of bacterial and viral aerosols due to toilet flushing. The more you learn about it, the scarier it sounds. The article ominously depicts a "floor plan of experimental bathroom with location of gauze pads for viral fallout experiments." A lot of virus fell on those gauze pads, EGrba found, and a lot of bacteria too. In fact, significant quantities of microbes floated around the bathroom for at least two hours after each flush.

As Professor EGrba's research would later determine, however, the bathroom was hardly the most dangerous part of the house, microbe-wise. The real pesthole: the kitchen sponge or dishcloth, where fecal coliform bacteria from raw meat and such could fester in a damp, nurturing (for a germ) environment. Next came the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink, and the kitchen faucet handle. The toilet seat was the least contaminated of 15 household locales studied. "If an alien came from space and studied the bacterial counts," the professor says, "he probably would conclude he should wash his hands in your toilet and crap in your sink."

Talk with this guy for a few minutes and you realize that everything people think they know about household cleanliness is wrong. You think a guy's apartment is bound to be germier than a woman's? Uh-uh. Single men tended to have lower bacteria counts, since they never cleaned and thus didn't spread the crud around. (Remember this, lads, it may be useful ammunition someday.) Women's public restrooms contained twice as much fecal bacteria as men's, probably because the women were accompanied by sanitary napkins, grimy small children, and babies in need of a change.

Another thing. You think maybe the laundry room is germ free? Feh. The place is a sty due to fecal matter on underwear. Despite what some believe, however, doorknobs and handles in public restrooms are relatively clean.

Perhaps you think this talk of contamination is just paranoid squeamishness. You wish. Fifty to eighty percent of all food-borne illnesses originate in the home. Food-borne pathogens cause 6.5 million cases of gastroenteritis and 9,000 deaths per year. Home contamination is blamed for 20 percent of food-poisoning cases, more than any other source.

What to do? Most guys will happily go on wallowing in filth, but Professor EGrba offers these tips for everybody else:

• Wipe down sinks and drains each day with a cleanser containing chlorine bleach. This will knock out 99.9 percent of fecal organisms. Countertops, appliances, and faucet handles should get the treatment two or three times a week, and toilets, tubs, and showers once a week.
• Use separate cutting boards for meat and vegetables, lest you transfer germs from one to the other.
• Throw cutting boards, kitchen sponges, and dishcloths in the dishwasher (or, in the case of the latter items, the washing machine) after use. Alternatively, soak them for five minutes in a sink full of water containing a cup of bleach.
• When doing laundry, make underwear the last load. Don't sort by colors (or at least don't put colored underwear with other colored items). Use chlorine bleach, which will clean both the clothes and your washing machine.
• Use bleach tablets in your toilet bowl. And take it from me, if you do nothing else, put your toothbrush back in the medicine cabinet after use.

Comments

[sherahi.livejournal.com]

Yup, that is all correct stuff. I learned most of that from my microbiology class in college, and we got to swab and grow stuff from our bathrooms and kitchens, and then ID it. Quite interesting. We also learned how toilet paper doesn't prevent you from getting anything on your hands, it goes right through in 9 times outta 10.

So since then I'm fanatical about washing my hands and not touching my face, when I do anything. I also was responsible for 'redoing' all our sanitary policies at my old workplace, including daily soakings in bleach, use of bleach everywhere, extra footbaths and microwaving sponges after every use. They used to use betadine, and betadine REALLY doesn't do too much, and organisms become immune to that much more quickly than bleach.

I don't know if they still do it, but I was really fanatical about it. And I'm always glad I was. Although some introduction to microbes leads to a stronger immune system in young chicks/humans/animals, its best to error on the side of caution and keep everything clean as possible. Bleach is one of the cheapest and most effective disinfectants, and it degrades somewhat quickly with exposure to the natural elements (sun/sediment dirt,) so overall its one of the best to use. It is good to 'switch' disinfectants now and then (every other month technically, for two weeks, then go back to your main disinfectant,) since organisms can quickly become resistant to just about any affordable disinfectant on the market.

Boiling water/steam is EXCELLENT and no microbe (unless they live in hot springs naturally :) And you won't find these organisms in your home,) can resist this. I got a steam cleaning machine a while ago and LOVE IT. Its excellent and quick and easy and very very effective. You reduce your use of toxic chemicals, and they REALLY rip off just about any dirt from grease to hard water to you name it. I can't recommend them enough. If I still worked at my old place, I would have wanted several for the workplace. (We had large super power steam/pressure cleaners which we used on large spaces, but these also take off the paint and such, so could only be used on stainless steel.) I use my steam cleaner once a week on the tub, toilet and sink, kitchen, windows, etc. LOVE IT.

That's my 2 cents :)