Is It Safe To Sit On Public Toilet Seats?

Is It Safe To Sit On Public Toilet Seats
Should you sit on a public toilet seat? – According to the experts, yes, you should sit on a public toilet when going to the bathroom. Despite their bad reputation, most public toilet seats don’t contain enough of the bacteria or other microbes that could harm you by being exposed to healthy skin.

What happens if you sit on a public toilet seat?

Photo: Getty Images / Murat Deniz I t doesn’t take a genius to know that sitting bum-to-porcelain on a public toilet probably isn’t the most sanitary choice. But come on: We all do it every once in a while. Squatting is a pain in the butt (literally), those paper toilet seat covers are useless, and my colleague noted earlier today: “Sitting on the toilet is just really nice.” And, really, how bad can it be, right? Well, according to experts, it’s.

not great (but also not a big deal). The myth that you can get an STI from a toilet seat has been debunked and you’re highly unlikely to get any sort of disease, but public toilet seats are a hotbed for bacteria and you could potentially pick up an infection. “When you flush a toilet all that waste that’s in that toilet bowl is going down the tube and it’s aerosolized, so you can find a lot of bacteria and viruses in the environment around the toilet,” says Michael Pentella, PhD, clinical professor of epidemiology at the University of Iowa.

And in fact, studies have found that this “toilet plume” contains E. coli, SARS, and norovirus, But you’re probably not going to get sick just by sitting on the toilet. “Sitting on the toilet isn’t a great risk because the pathogens in waste are gastrointestinal pathogens.

The real risk is touching surfaces that might be infected with bacteria and viruses and then ingesting them because they’re on your hands,” says Dr. Pentella. The real problem, then, is what happens outside the bathroom stall. If you’re not washing your hands properly, you might transfer the germs to your mouth.

The only situation in which you might want to take extra precautions is when you have an open wound, like a cut on your butt. ” When bacteria is on a surface, it likes to find a happy place, and sometimes that’s on a person,” says confirms Ernest Brown, MD, founder of Doctors to You,

  • If bacteria gets into an open wound, there’s the potential for infection.
  • If a minor infection starts off looking like pimple and then turns into angry red boils, it should be checked out by a doctor ASAP.
  • But, again, the risk here is minimal.
  • If you’re healthy, your immune system is in good shape, and you have no wounds on the buttocks, then your skin should do all the work as the body’s first layer of defense against infections,” say Dr.

Brown. Related Stories Since sprinting home every time you have to pee isn’t exactly realistic (anyone remember that scene in American Pie ?), or even necessary, Dr. Brown instead recommends traveling with antibacterial wipes to give a public toilet seat a once-over before you take a seat.

If you’re going to be using one of those toilet seat covers or layering some TP on the seat, make sure the area is totally dry. Squatting is more sanitary than sitting, but it’s probably not an option if you’re in the (always-fun!) scenario of pooping in a public restroom. So is sitting on a public toilet seat going to kill you? No, certainly not.

But after writing this story, I, for one, am giving serious consideration to a portable ” Female Urination Device,” There are plenty of questions none of us want to ask out loud, but don’t worry—we got you.

How clean are public toilet seats?

Is It Safe To Sit On Public Toilet Seats Public toilets: Who knows who’s been there and what’s left behind that you don’t want? Gastrointestinal bugs, bacteria and virusesit seems like that sheet of tissue might save a lot of problems, right? Probably not. Most germs that hang out on public toilet seats are common skin microbes.

  • They aren’t likely to make you sick.
  • In fact, we need “good and neutral” germs in our environment to keep us healthy.
  • A study in Applied Environmental Microbiology found there were no more germs on public toilets than on home toilets.
  • Either way, that paper cover offers almost no protection against what might be there.

Germs and how they spread It’s possible (but rare) to pick up a few problem germs from toilet seats: e. coli, staph, strep and shigella. But you’re far more likely to pick these bugs up with your hands than with your bottom. Every time someone flushes, the germs get sprayed through the air.

They land on the floor, walls, the toilet paper and the flush handle (use your foot to flush.) So the best protection is to wash your hands thoroughly when you’re done to inactivate any germs you may have picked up. But what about STDs? The notion you can get sexually transmitted diseases from toilet seats has been debunked.

Organisms like gonorrhea don’t live very long away from the body, and they hang out on skin — not in urine or feces. What about MRSA? The scary antibiotic-resistant organism MRSA (methicillin resistant staphlococcus aureus ) is more likely to be found on a hospital toilet than a public one.

  • But even on hospital toilet seats, it’s rare.
  • Hospitals tell patients with weak immune systems to wipe hospital toilets clean with alcohol swabs, not put paper covers over them.
  • Things that are dirtier than public toilets Toilet seats aren’t even that dirty compared to many other things.
  • Cutting boards and keyboards have 200 times as many bacteria per square inch as toilet seats.
See also:  Do You Have To Reserve A Seat On Ryanair?

The kitchen sink and sponge are the dirtiest surfaces of all in most homes — up to 200,000 times dirtier than the toilet. Other things that are dirtier than a toilet seat: refrigerators, dog bowls, beards, cell phones and desktops. And that’s just a start.

Can you get germs from toilet seats?

Peeing in public – Developing an infection from your bottom sitting on a toilet seat is very unlikely, as most intestinal diseases involve hand-to-mouth transfer of bacteria as a result of faecal contamination of hands, food and surfaces. Human skin is also covered by a layer of bacteria and yeast which functions as a highly effective protective shield. Is It Safe To Sit On Public Toilet Seats An average person visits the toilet 2500 times a year. Shutterstock So there is no need to squat over the toilet bowel. In fact, squatting may actually cause injury or increase the risk of infection. As women’s health physical therapist Brianne Grogan explains : The problem with “hovering” over the toilet when urinating is that the muscles of your pelvic floor and pelvic girdle – your hip rotators, gluten, back and abs – are extremely tense.

Can you get UTI from toilet seat?

When you sit on the toilet seat, the pee hole does not actually come in contact with it, said a doctor. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock) Many women worry about contracting urinary tract infections or UTI from toilet seats, especially if they are using a public toilet.

  1. While it is true that women, more than men, are at a greater risk of suffering from UTI, there is little truth to the fact that they can get it from merely sitting on a toilet seat.
  2. Dr Tanaya, who goes by the name of ‘Dr Cuterus’ on Instagram, shared in a post that while many companies sell toilet seat sanitising products — which can be used if you want to keep the seat germ-free — it does not serve the purpose of protecting you from UTI,

“When you sit on the toilet seat, the pee hole does not actually come in contact with it,” the doctor demonstrated in a video. She added that bacteria will not magically fly from the seat and into your urethra. The one way that you can get a UTI infection, she continued in the video, is by wiping yourself the wrong way after peeing.

  • The doctor explained that some people wipe from the back to the front, bringing the bacteria from the butthole all the way to the pee hole.
  • The correct way to wipe after peeing is from the front to the back, she concluded.
  • In the comments, the doctor further explained that “drinking enough water and not holding your pee” can help people who are susceptible to UTI.

“Dehydration and holding pee are bigger causes of UTI than anything else,” she wrote. Did you know about this? 📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates! © IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd First published on: 21-02-2022 at 10:50:57 am

What to do after using a public toilet?

About This Article – Article Summary X If you’re out in public and you need to use the restroom, look into multiple stalls to try to find one that’s clean and stocked with toilet paper. If there are seat covers, lay one over the toilet seat. If not, you can make a seat cover out of strips of toilet paper.

Can you get sick from the toilet seat?

However, even if there are fewer of them, you may still encounter various germs on your toilet seat including fecal bacteria, influenza, streptococcus, E. coli, hepatitis, MRSA, salmonella, shigella and norovirus.

See also:  Why Are Airplane Seats So Uncomfortable?

How many germs are on a public toilet seat?

By Charlotte Pritchard BBC News Is It Safe To Sit On Public Toilet Seats The toilet seat has acquired an unfair reputation as the dirtiest item in the average household. But scientists say there are far filthier places in our house, some of them where we least expect. Would you chop your vegetables on your toilet seat? I think pretty much all of us would say No.

But maybe we should think again. Dr Chuck Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, studies how diseases are transferred through the environment. This involves swabbing household items and measuring how many bacteria – and what sort – develop. He particularly looks for faecal bacteria such as E.coli and staphylococcus aureus.

His studies have found that on the average toilet seat there are 50 bacteria per square inch. “It’s one of the cleanest things you’ll run across in terms of micro-organisms,” he says. “It’s our gold standard – there are not many things cleaner than a toilet seat when it comes to germs.” We should be more worried about other household items, it seems.

Usually there are about 200 times more faecal bacteria on the average cutting board than on a toilet seat,” he says. In the kitchen it doesn’t necessarily get there through actual contact with faeces. It comes via raw meat products or the viscera from inside of the animal, where a lot of the faecal bacteria originate.

Would Gerba be more inclined to chop his vegetables on a toilet seat then? “It would seem a safer place,” he says. “Not that I would recommend it, but you might treat your cutting board a bit more like you do your toilet seat.” It’s because we all fear the dirtiness of the toilet seat so much that we regularly clean it, so perhaps this is the course of action we need to take with our chopping boards.

But the filthiest culprit in our homes is the kitchen sponge or cloth. According to Gerba, there are about 10 million bacteria per square inch on a sponge, and a million on a dishcloth. In other words, a kitchen sponge is 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat, and a dishcloth is 20,000 times dirtier.

This is the same the world over. “Always the dirtiest thing by far is the kitchen sponge,” says John Oxford, professor of virology at the University of London and chair of the Hygiene Council – an international body that compares hygiene standards across the world.

How long do germs live on a toilet seat?

What infections can you get from sitting on a toilet seat? – Although the chances of getting an STI like chlamydia or gonorrhea from a toilet seat are slim to none, there are other infections you can get from a toilet seat. The truth is, many disease-causing organisms only live a short time on the toilet seat.

Escherichia coli, or E. coli, can be found in fecal matter. Toilets are the perfect breeding ground for this bacteria.E. coli is found in your intestines, but if you’re exposed to it from contaminated food, water, or nonporous toilet seats, you could suffer from diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. Gastrointestinal viruses like norovirus, often mistaken for “food poisoning,” cause stomach issues similar to E. coli. They are easily transmitted and can live on contaminated nonporous surfaces such as toilet seats for up to two weeks, even if the toilets were cleaned. Shigella bacteria is passed from person to person, especially when people don’t wash their hands properly. Shigella infections are similar to E. coli and spread when an infected person’s feces contaminate a surface, including toilet seats, handles, and lids. Streptococcus is a bacteria that causes strep throat and bronchial pneumonia. It can also cause contagious skin infections such as impetigo. Many bathrooms harbor this bacteria.

Why do public toilet seats have a gap?

The gap in the seat is designed to ‘ allow women to wipe the perineal area after using the toilet without contacting the seat,’ she tells Slate.

How do I prevent UTI after using public toilet?

‘Exercise caution while using public washrooms, practice good intimate hygiene, and always carry a toilet seat sanitizer with you for better protection.’

What happens if you sit in someone’s pee?

Medically reviewed in July 2022 Does this sound familiar? While rushing to answer an urgent call of nature, you plop down on a public toilet seat without looking at it first and yuck! Someone else has sprinkled the seat with pee and now you’ve sat in it.

What’s the worst that could happen? “You’ll get wet,” says Robin Miller, MD, a member of the Sharecare advisory board and co-author of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife and Beyond, “And you’ll be grossed out.” In fact, it makes more sense to talk about what won’t happen if you perch on a pee-splattered toilet seat.

Here are some things you might worry about, but don’t need to:

See also:  Can-Am Commander 4 Seater?

Bacteria. “Urine is sterile,” says Dr. Miller. “Even if someone has a bladder infection, the bacteria aren’t going to survive outside of the body.” So, for example, you aren’t at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia if you sit in pee. You have to have sex with someone who’s infected with the bacteria that causes it. Viruses. Bugs such as the herpes virus and HPV, the human papillomavirus that causes cervical and other cancers, “can’t survive outside the body,” says Miller. As with bacterial infections, the only way to become infected with one of these viruses is through intimate contact with an infected sexual partner. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The risk of contracting HIV from a toilet seat is nil. “HIV only can be transmitted via blood or during sex,” says Miller. “And even if you happen to sit on menstrual blood left behind on a toilet seat, you aren’t at increased risk of infection.” Crabs (pubic lice). “You can’t get crabs from a toilet seat,” Miller says. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the primary way these microscopic parasites are likely to hop on board your body is if you have close sexual contact with someone whose pubic or genital area is already infested. That’s because of the nature of the beast: crabs don’t have feet that would allow them to move or grab onto a smooth surface like a toilet seat, nor can they survive long outside of a warm human body.

As for dealing with your damp thighs, Miller says to just dry them off with clean toilet paper. If you aren’t rushing and spot pee before you sit, you can use a toilet seat cover to avoid getting wet. Where germs lurk This isn’t to say public bathrooms are totally devoid of health hazards.

“These include the knobs on the sinks, the door to the restroom and the floor,” Miller says. “Never put your purse on the floor in a public bathroom.” It goes without saying that you should wash your hands with soap. “Do this before putting on make-up, if you plan to do that,” she says. Avoid touching your mouth while in the loo.

And, if you have a choice, “use a paper towel rather than a hot air blower to dry your hands. They blow bacteria all over the place.” Miller notes that with the trend for gender-neutral bathrooms, it’s especially important to wash hands the right way.

What to do after using a public toilet?

About This Article – Article Summary X If you’re out in public and you need to use the restroom, look into multiple stalls to try to find one that’s clean and stocked with toilet paper. If there are seat covers, lay one over the toilet seat. If not, you can make a seat cover out of strips of toilet paper.

Can you get ringworm from a toilet seat?

Transmission – Ringworm is very common, especially among children, and may be spread by skin-to-skin contact, as well as via contact with contaminated items such as hairbrushes or through the use of the same toilet seat as an infected individual. Ringworm spreads readily, as those infected are contagious even before they show symptoms of the disease.

  1. Participants in contact sports such as wrestling have a risk of contracting the fungal infection through skin-to-skin contact.
  2. Ringworm is mildly contagious.
  3. Ringworm is also a common infection in domestic animals, especially farm animals, dogs and cats.
  4. Humans can contract ringworm from these animals as humans are in close contact with them.

Chickens may also be a source, due to the dirty conditions in which many poultry must live in which ringworm may thrive. Ringworm can also be caught from other humans, both by direct contact and by prolonged contact with flakes of shed skin (from sharing clothes or from house dust, for instance).

To catch ringworm, you have to be exposed to it and you have to be susceptible. Some people are much more susceptible than others. Those with eczema or other skin problems get ringworm more easily because the protective barrier of the skin’s outer layer is less intact. Children are more susceptible before puberty.

Some people are genetically predisposed, and can get it easily throughout life.