Walking into the bathroom stall today, a strange question popped into my mind as I glanced down at the toilet seat.
"Despite looking so clean & white, how dirty is it?"
Ever thought about that?
I know you have!
I've seen the janitor cleaning the restroom many times, including working over the toilet bowl.
But have I ever seen him wiping down the toilet seat with any type of disinfectant or antibacterial wipe?
No, I don't think I have.
I know some businesses provide the thin paper seat covers in dispensers hanging on the wall of the stall.
Paper seat covers.
Thin paper. Just a couple ticks above tissue paper.
I don't see how those help.
Better than direct skin-on-seat contact you say?
OK, I can go with that.
But I'm not trusting one to fully protect me from getting some heeby-jeeby nastiness on my bum.
However, according to the expert advice on WebMD, we need not worry anyway:
No doubt about it, there could be a witch's brew of germs wherever you turn in public restrooms. Many people consider toilet seats to be public enemy No. 1 -- the playground for organisms responsible for STDs like chlamydia or gonorrhea. But before you panic, the toilet seat is not a common vehicle for transmitting infections to humans. Many disease-causing organisms can survive for only a short time on the surface of the seat, and for an infection to occur, the germs would have to be transferred from the toilet seat to your urethral or genital tract, or through a cut or sore on the buttocks or thighs, which is possible but very unlikely.
There you have it.
"Keep your butts free of cuts!"
And there's this reassurance too:
"To my knowledge, no one has ever acquired an STD on the toilet seat -- unless they were having sex on the toilet seat!" says Abigail Salyers, PhD, president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Whew!
(full WebMD article: http://www.m.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/what-can-you-catch-in-restrooms)
Nonetheless, we're not totally in the free and clear, as there's this:
5 Germs You Really Can Get From a Toilet
- eColi
- Shigella bacteria
- streptococcus
- staphylococcus
- influenza
Moral of the story: lots of stuff (cell phones, remotes, doorknobs, shopping carts) is way more threatening than that seat in the stall.
Wash your hands after your visit to the potty stall, and chances are you'll be just fine.
With or without that silly seat cover.
Out for now........
Matt