Are there health risks to using public toilets? Here’s what experts say.https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/are-there-health-risks-to-using-public-toilets-140059968.html
“What makes public bathrooms particularly germy is the sheer volume of people that go through them, and the microbes that those people might be carrying,” Lena Ciric, professor of built environment microbiology at University College London, tells Yahoo Life.
“You ultimately just don’t know who’s been there and what they might have. It’s more sort of a game of chance than anything.”
That game is highly influenced by how often the bathroom is cleaned and how well it’s ventilated, as certain bacteria and viruses can linger on surfaces or in the air longer than others, Kevin Garey, chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Houston, tells Yahoo Life. Norovirus, for example, can survive on surfaces for up to four weeks.
There’s also concern about hand dryers circulating contaminated air. However, research says they make little difference to an indoor area’s bacterial load compared to the use of paper towels. Ciric adds that they may actually be helpful in diluting a concentrated plume of disease by mixing the air around, thereby decreasing its likelihood for infection. “It all depends on how much you’re starting off with,” she says.
It’s very unlikely that you’d get sick by stepping into and using a public bathroom. After all, in order to be infected, microbes have to enter your system, and that’s most likely to happen via ingestion from your very own hands, contaminated by surfaces like the toilet seat, flush handle, stall latch or faucet tap, Ciric says. But if you wash your hands well and don’t touch your face, you should be fine.
If you do happen to pick up a bug during your pee break, it’s most likely to be gastrointestinal, such as norovirus, e.coli orshigella, as those are found in feces, says Jyoti Kini, a primary care physician with Medical Offices of Manhattan. The likelihood of catching a virus like COVID in the bathroom, on the other hand, is low. “From a respiratory point of view, you’re in there for a relatively short time,” Ciric explains. “So it’s not the same as … sitting in a room with somebody for three hours.”
You also don’t have to worry about sitting on a toilet and contracting sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, Kini adds, because they die as soon as they leave the protection of the mucus lining. However, viruses such as hepatitis, HPV, HIV and herpes “can live outside the body on surfaces anywhere from a few seconds up to a few weeks,” she says.
Still, generally speaking, intact skin — meaning, not having an open wound — and our body’s existing healthy, protective microbes “do a really good job at preventing germs we pick up in public bathrooms or other places from causing infections,” says Garey. “For that reason, sitting on a toilet seat and picking up a few germs won’t generally make you sick.”
!!!the best thing you can do to avoid germs in public bathroom is to minimize your contact with high-touch areas such as flushhandles, toilet seats and faucet taps (or at least avoid touching your face after), and wash your hands as soon as possible andthoroughly “with soap and water, scrubbing with the soap for at least 20 seconds,” Garey instructs.
!!!it’s fine to use a toilet seat protector. But if you’re concerned about the seat specifically, it’s even better to carrydisinfectant wipes to quickly clean the seat and flush handle — with the handle far more likely to be germy, as people touch itimmediately after wiping, Ciric points out — before sitting down. If you’re extra cautious: Carry your own toilet paper to avoid using potentially contaminated — and let’s be honest, crappy one-ply — toilet paper within the stall, Kini suggests. Last, avoid putting your purse or other items on the stall floor as it “tends to be the dirtiest spot in the bathroom and is usually cleaned the least,” Garey says.”
