Well, now, here’s a topic not welcomed at the dinner table!
Who REALLY likes public toilets…much less the facilities they are housed in? We were going to call this post “Bathroom Diaries 101” but we found that the mere thought of anything to do with the word “bath” mixed in with filthy public facilities, made it hard to hold down a day’s meals.
Besides, you know just what we mean.
The overall subject of restrooms has so many components that we will discuss these posts in parts. You have time, don’t you? Yes. Things really need to be addressed concerning the one most important room other than a kitchen. (Bedrooms are less important. One can always sleep on a couch or cot in any other room, really).
Today, we will discuss two components that are important to the grotesque world of public restroom usage: Flushing and Washing.
We like to survey people. We recently surveyed 100 people.
97 of them issued heavy, negative complaints against public restrooms, period. The other three only used public bathrooms at their country clubs; therefore “never experiencing the usual public travesties.”
Um…yeah.
Little did they know that germs could care less where they reside…and really do not require membership on a golf course before they breed and incubate…..but that is another post.
All 100 stated that if they never used a public bathroom again, they would not lose sleep over it.
Why?
The #1 complaint regarding public restroom facilities is that they are NEVER CLEAN. The #2 complaint was the OVERALL SMELL. Of course it doesn’t help when people relieve themselves and leave human excrement right there in the toilet without flushing. Yep. Kinda like turning on water sprinklers while standing over them—complaining about getting wet. You don’t flush, the smell stays; Common SENSE 101.
The complaints that followed were the lack of supplies (toilet paper, soap, paper towels, toilet seat covers, etc.).
Ironically, many worried about catching diseases from public restrooms. After all, how many hands have really touched that toilet paper? Or…how about the fact that when a toilet is flushed, the contents can splash up to six feet out of the bowl? Yikes. Truth is, folks (and contrary to popular belief) the toilet seat is not a common vehicle for transmitting infections. Yes. Alert the presses. Many disease-causing organisms can only survive for a short time on the seat’s surface.
For an infection to occur, the germs (which would also have to be in large amounts, we might add) would have to be transferred from the toilet seat to your urethral or genital tract–or through an open cut or sore on the buttocks or thighs; which is possible, but very unlikely.
After all…you would be using toilet seat covers to begin with anyway, right?
We will not deny that the typical bugs like streptococcus, staphylococcus, E. coli and Shigella bacteria, Hepatitis A virus, the common cold virus, and various sexually transmitted organisms DO exist in public restrooms. However, if you keep your immune system healthy and simply WASH YOUR HANDS THE RIGHT WAY, you should be able to pass right by these bugs like an on-time flight to Seattle.
However, fecal germs can indeed be propelled into the air when the toilet is flushed (remember…we mentioned up to six feet from the bowl!!).
Not comforting, is it?
According to Philip Tierno, MD, director of clinical microbiology and diagnostic immunology at New York University Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center, it is advisable to leave the restroom stall immediately after flushing to keep the microscopic, airborne mist from choosing you as a landing site. “The greatest aerosol dispersal occurs not during the initial moments of the flush, but rather once most of the water has already left the bowl,” he says.
Perfect.
Where else do the germs lie, just waiting for unsuspecting patrons? Sinks, towel dispensers doorknobs (or pulls) and faucet handles.
In fact, the American Society of Microbiology studies showed:
- 97% of females and 92% of males say they wash
- of these only 75% females and 58% males washed
- 50% of middle and high school students say they wash
- of these 33% of females and only 8% of males used soap while washing hands
Ewww.
Now…drum roll please……
Even for the people that actually do wash, most are not washing correctly! Hand-washing 101: Moving your hands quickly under a flow of water for one second or less doesn’t do anyone any good—especially without the use of soap. You may as well just leave the bathroom without the entire process.
So listen up: The proper way to wash your hands after using the bathroom is to rub soapy water all over the hands AND FINGERS for 20 to 30 seconds, including underneath the fingernails. Friction is the key. Did we say that friction was the key? Friction (rubbing the hands together as if you were trying to start a fire) will actually loosen the disease-causing particles on your hands. Oh…and here is the clincher:
Rinse thoroughly; then repeat the process!
How many of us actually wash MORE than once on regular public bathroom visits? We’re willing to bet THAT percentage will be low!
Here are some other useful practices you should be sure to adopt:
1) Flush the toilet with your shoe instead of your hands.
2) Only use paper towels to dry your hands, as they are separated and personal for usage. See #4 below for how this process should occur. Oh…if any bathroom you use still has the old-fashioned cloth towel on a circulating roll, RUN FOR THE HILLS!! Don’t even bother using the restroom. REST. Hold it until the next town because that is just sick.
3) Don’t use hot-air hand dryers! Hot-air hand dryers have been shown to increase bacterial count by over 500%, as well as increasing the bacterial contamination of the local environment (Knight et al, 1993; Redway et al, 1994) especially the button to start the dryer. Also…if you touch the vents in any way, contamination is inevitable.
We spoke to a woman once who had gotten her hair wet and thought it cool to run her head and face underneath one of these wretched dryers.
The horror.
4) Of course it doesn’t help to do all of these things we warned you about above and still open the door with your bare hands afterwards. Grab some paper towels before using the restroom. Use those towels to turn on the sink faucet, grab new ones, open the bathroom door and anything else you need to do. Your very last move should be to throw away all towels in a trash can outside the bathroom.
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Thought for Today: Does anyone actually clean the filth out of the public bowling ball holes after each usage?
Think about it.
It happens daily.
You bowl. You strike. Laugh, touch your face, rub your eyes, scratch your hair, slap somebody’s hands happily (you just scored a spare!!) maybe even sneeze and then cover your mouth—with the same fingers in and out of those bowling ball holes…..
Yum.
Bowling anyone?
*****Stay tuned for Restroom Diaries 101: Part 2 (TBA)
