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The repulsive experiment that looked at what happens in public restrooms when you flush water
Public toilets are not a particularly pleasant place, no matter how much they are cleaned.
The high turnover of people and the fact that people do their needs there is satisfying, but there is one more reason they are so polluted, and it is particularly disturbing
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Toilet
germs
Infection
Services
public toilets
Walla!
health
Sunday, 25 April 2021, 09:32
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Public toilets are not clean.
Variables in public services (Photo: ShutterStock)
It is no surprise that public toilets are an unclean room at best, and polluted at worst, so the presence of bacteria seems to be an integral part of all this horror.
The question is how polluted are we talking about, and is it dangerous for us?
A new study has revealed the large amounts of aerosol particles (tiny particles floating in the air) that disperse whenever water is flushed down the toilet, and the potential they have for carrying bacteria and diseases like Ebola, food-related bacteria, and even corona.
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To the full article
In the study, published in Physics of Fluids, researchers placed testing machines at different heights alongside toilets and urinals in public restrooms.
Particle levels were measured before and after water rinsing.
"After about three hours of testing that included more than 100 rejections, we found a significant increase in the levels of aerosols measured in the environment, with the total number of droplets generated in each flush test ranging to tens of thousands of particles," explained Sidhartha and Rama, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Florida.
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The aerosols rose to a height of 109 cm above the toilet and to a height of 69 cm above the urinals during the experiments, and they were present in the air for up to 20 seconds.
The researchers report a 69.5 percent increase in 0.3 to 0.5 μm particles, a 209 percent increase for 0.5 to 1 μm particles, and a 50 percent increase in the presence of 1 to 3 μm particles after rinsing.
There are several factors that affect the amount of aerosols that lower water from jumping into the air - water pressure in the toilet, toilet design and flushing power.
Researchers say closing the toilet lid before draining can help.
It is recommended to lower the lid.
Woman lowers toilet lid (Photo: ShutterStock)
"Both the toilet and the urinal produced large amounts of droplets smaller than three micrometers, which poses a significant risk of transfer if they contain contaminating microorganisms," said Verma.
"Because of their small size, these drops can remain suspended in the air for a long time."
In any case this is not a simple health statistic, but in the Corona era there is another cause for concern, as public services are often small, unventilated and full of people, a combination we know leads to an increased risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 indoors.
Although there are no approved cases of corona patients being infected from the toilet, the theoretical risk exists.
By and large, airflow in public toilets is important, but our advice - do not linger there long enough to check if it is good or not.
Just get out of there fast.
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