Sanitation Station

September 27, 2004 11:10 AM

Does putting TP or one of those safetyguards on the toilet seat actually do anything? Or is this just a salve for our collective germophobia?
posted by PrinceValium to Health & Fitness (38 answers total)

There was an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit that covered this. They mostly focused on why they weren't needed instead of their effectiveness against any germs on the toilet seats, though. In a series of highly scientific tests they swabbed people's body parts, and their asses didn't have any more or less fecal coliform bacteria than their faces or hands.
posted by zsazsa at 11:29 AM on September 27, 2004

There was an episode of Penn and Teller bullshit that dealt with that really important issue.

Basically, their conclusion was that there was absolutely no health risk involved, and that it was all simply psychological. Their methodology in observing the health risks of "dirty" toilet seats wasn't exactly perfect (scientific accuracy != entertaining tv).

[On preview: Zsazsa beat me to it.]
posted by mrgavins at 11:40 AM on September 27, 2004

I always thought they were there to protect us from all the germophobe assholes who splash on the seat.
posted by dame at 11:57 AM on September 27, 2004

It soaks up the urine on the seat and transfers it more effectively to your skin.
posted by m@ at 11:58 AM on September 27, 2004

Oh my, the idiocy of that sho.com web site zsazsa linked to.

[quote]

Sorry

We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

[/quote]

Fuck you then!
posted by madman at 12:13 PM on September 27, 2004

It's a little known fact among men that women, while usually fastidious in the toilet at home, are notorious for pissing all over the seats of public toilets. This results from poor hovering techniques, which are necessary to avoid the piss from all the previous hoverers. If all women just agreed to sit down, the problem would be eliminated. However, in the meantime, the paper seat cover allows one to determine if there is piss on the seat without having to get too close to the seat to make an examination. If the seat cover gets wet, I hover. I leave the paper cover there until I'm done in case my advanced hovering technique doesn't work perfectly, thus leaving a dry seat for the next woman who comes along. TMI, perhaps, but you asked.
posted by gokart4xmas at 12:18 PM on September 27, 2004

Women hover and piss all over? My 32nd birthday is in a couple weeks, and I did not know that.

Guys do it, but not for the hovering reason, but I'd say even with a mixture of guys standing and sitting, I only encounter piss on a seat maybe 10-20% of the time I use a public toilet (I'm usually at somewhat upscale areas, I'm guessing).
posted by mathowie at 12:55 PM on September 27, 2004

...

on preview: I'm so relieved. I was afraid, gokart4xmas, that I would need to explain just that. Through my life so far as a ware house worker, a student center setter-upper and a married man I've had more than my share of opportunities to be befuddled at the strange customs of women in public restrooms. Paranoia, fear and mutual distrust can make people do some really bizarre things.
posted by codger at 12:56 PM on September 27, 2004

It's a little known fact among men that women ... are notorious for pissing all over the seats of public toilets.

Sadly, it's true. Women pee all over the seats and often DON'T CLEAN UP. According to American Demographics magazine the belief that toilets are germ ridden filth-pots is widespread

Kohler cites a USA Today poll that shows 79 percent of Americans believing that diseases can be transmitted by sitting on toilet seats. The belief is erroneous--"We don't take a position on it," [the Kohler dude] says--but the fear is bankable.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has this to say

"researchers say that of all the areas in a bathroom, the toilet seat is probably the least germ-infested.... Experts say catching any venereal disease ... is highly unlikely. And you are more likely to encounter common bacteria like E. coli and cold viruses on a faucet than on a toilet seat. Failing to wash your hands after touching a flush handle, faucet, or doorknob poses a far greater health threat than sitting on a toilet, experts say. Women's bathrooms have twice as many germs as men's, a 1997 study found, as a result of heavier traffic and diaper stations. A study earlier this year found that office workstations, because they are rarely disinfected, contain an average of 400 times as many germs as toilet seats."

Forbes has this article called "Fear Factor" talking about huge industries based on non-rational fears

Paper toilet seat covers FEAR: That you can catch a disease by exposing your skin to a dirty toilet seat. FACT: Bacteria have not been shown to grow on toilet seats, so contact "poses very little risk of transmission" of diseases, according to colorectal surgeon Bruce Orkin of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. WHAT'S SPENT ON PRODUCT: More than $20 million worldwide.

So, upshot? I'd say that the little seat covers don't do anything except keep your butt dry. The Straight Dope does have an amusing column about the germs that are spread by flushing, but that's an entirely other matter.
posted by jessamyn at 1:06 PM on September 27, 2004

office workstations, because they are rarely disinfected, contain an average of 400 times as many germs as toilet seats."

You just changed my life, and not in a good way. Not at all.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:12 PM on September 27, 2004

The only good use I have found for them is drying my hands when all the joint offers is a blow-dryer.
posted by mischief at 1:13 PM on September 27, 2004

Another seldom discussed topic in this general area is the art of flushing the public toilet without using one's hands. I don't know if men do this, but most women I know use their foot to flush. This can be tricky when wearing heels or standing on a wet floor. It is my hope that by revealing this "secret", male toilet designers will begin to embrace the use of flush pedals located on the floor in public bathrooms.
posted by gokart4xmas at 2:03 PM on September 27, 2004

I'm all about the kick-flush. It makes me feel so cool.
posted by rafter at 2:16 PM on September 27, 2004

People, people! They are called ass gaskets. Please use the proper terminology. Thank you.
posted by kindall at 2:23 PM on September 27, 2004

I tell ya what I don't get. Why do some people come into the restroom and go into the stalls/cubicles instead of using the urinals like the rest of us? Seriously, I'd rather use the urinal if I can incase I go into a cubicle and see some dude's floater (has happened a couple of times now).
posted by wackybrit at 2:30 PM on September 27, 2004

Simple technique for maximum cleanliness:
1. wipe toilet seat thoroughly with toilet paper (this removes any stray urine, as well as ensures that there is, in fact, toilet paper), be sure to use enough toilet paper that no urine ends up on your hand.
2. sit on toilet (no paper seat cover), do business, wipe, etc.
3. use a wad of (clean) toilet paper to flush toilet (no one-footed gymnastics necessary).

Oh, and as a side-note, I knew girls were disgusting. At my fraternity house the worst cleaning job was always cleaning the women's head. By far. Especially after a party. Usually if you got stuck doing it you either lost a bet or were being punished for something.

[on preview: wackybrit - some people get stage fright, one of my buddies is like that]
posted by rorycberger at 2:32 PM on September 27, 2004

I didn't realize women hovered until college, where all three of my roommates told me that they not only hovered as a matter of course in public bathrooms, but one of them even hovered over our (personal, only used by the four of us) bathroom toilet. Yeesh.

I don't know if toilet paper on the seat makes a difference, but it's a bitch to get caught with the only stall available and having the seat covered in wadded (and wet) paper from the last user, who didn't bother to toss it in the toilet or trash when she was done.

Oh, and I am *totally* about the flush pedal, gokart4xmas. Nasty bathroom floors combined with visible dirt on the handle (so you know someone was flushing with their foot).... ew.
posted by Melinika at 2:36 PM on September 27, 2004

I touch anything in a bathroom. I'm sure I get just as many germs/bacteria in everyday life, so a little more isn't going to bother me too much.
posted by corpse at 2:40 PM on September 27, 2004

Oh, and on the topic of bathrooms.. what IDIOT designed most public bathrooms to have the door handles on the inside!? It means you can easily push your way into the bathroom with no hands used.. but once you want to come out, you have to touch a handle covered in urine (because of the idiots who never wash their hands). I've noticed this pattern in nearly every public bathroom I've been in. Put the handles to go IN to the bathroom, not out!
posted by wackybrit at 3:16 PM on September 27, 2004

It's more about the icky than about the germs.
posted by callmejay at 3:18 PM on September 27, 2004

Oh, and on the topic of bathrooms.. what IDIOT designed most public bathrooms to have the door handles on the inside!? It means you can easily push your way into the bathroom with no hands used.. but once you want to come out, you have to touch a handle covered in urine (because of the idiots who never wash their hands).

thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU for noticing this, too! god help me, i nearly scream every time i see this idiocy in action, and wonder what the hell kind of an engineering degree you need to design THAT. ARGHHHHH.
posted by tristeza at 3:47 PM on September 27, 2004

Wackbrit -- that's so you can't easily get trapped in the bathroom by something impeding the outward travel of the door, e.g. a stampeding mob trying to leave a burning building.
posted by Tubes at 3:48 PM on September 27, 2004

Why do some people come into the restroom and go into the stalls/cubicles instead of using the urinals like the rest of us?

I can either have a little bit of privacy, or not. Why wouldn't I choose the little bit of privacy? If there's a floater, hey, M-O-O-N, that spells target. Unless it's a zombie mutant floater, it's unlikely to leap from the bowl and attack me.

Also, if there's a nontrivial probability of my emitting a fart, it seems a bit more polite to do that behind stall walls.

Going into a stall also reduces the risk that some jackass will try to start a conversation me.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:50 PM on September 27, 2004

It's more about the icky than about the germs.

The germs are the icky.
posted by kindall at 3:59 PM on September 27, 2004

I touch anything in a bathroom. I'm sure I get just as many germs/bacteria in everyday life, so a little more isn't going to bother me too much.

Me too. It only recently occurred to me that people go through these restroom calesthenics to protect themselves from ... me!
posted by jessamyn at 4:28 PM on September 27, 2004

Mefi ladies that step on the toilet handle:

Do you use a tissue-paper-thin toilet cover (or perhaps TP)to cover the toilet?

If so, could you please explain to me why in the h*ll isn't TP good enough to cover your hand to use while flushing? The bottom of your freakin shoe is surely going to encounter vile things that (hopefully) your hands wouldn't.

I've always wondered that and never had an opportunity to ask until now. Thanks Ask Mefi!
posted by xena at 5:15 PM on September 27, 2004

Failing to wash your hands after touching a flush handle, faucet, or doorknob poses a far greater health threat than sitting on a toilet, experts say.

So, please, how do you turn on the faucet, wash your hands, then turn off the faucet without actually touching the faucet?

The time-delay turn-offs are nice, the infrared ones, too, when they work, but everywhere else, I have to grab a paper towel (if there are any), turn on the faucet, wash my hands, leave the faucet running while I get another paper towel, turn off the faucet with it, get another paper towel to dry my hands, and then use that same towel to pull the door open and, if there's no trash receptacle on the outside, hold the door open with my foot while I try for three points from the top of the key to the waste bin inside.

I'm a kick-flusher. I'd rather not flush than have to touch that thing with my hand. Even the little silver flip handle on the front, like you find in people's houses. In Europe, where they have the big-flush/little-flush spilt button on the top, I use a shirt-covered elbow. If anyone else is using their hands, it must be tough vomiting all the time from passing other people's fecal bacteria to their lips.

I've got another question: who are you guys who, while sitting in a stall, drop your pants all the way to the floor? Do you like the smell of piss on your clothes all day? What do you think about stray, foreign pubes you might pick up in your corduroys?
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:49 PM on September 27, 2004

I am a safe houseguest. I do not kick-flush in people's houses. I bring wine, too.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:53 PM on September 27, 2004

A proven quick cure for stage fright:
take a number (like 2) and keep squariing it (to yourself, meaning inside of your head).
Apparently the math centers of the human brain are also in charge of unnecessarilly clamping your ureter shut. Multitasking seems not to be an option for these neaural circuits.
[Try it and see]
posted by Fupped Duck at 6:04 PM on September 27, 2004

xena...comments above mention studies that show there is much more contamination on flush handles than on toilet seats. Since the flush handle is the first thing people touch after wiping off urine, blood, feces, whatever...well, I guess I'd have to use a pretty big wad of tp not to feel icky about touching it. I'll admit that this behavior may not be totally rational, but until they start stocking latex gloves in bathroom stalls, I'll continue using my foot.

On preview...I would never kick-flush in a private residence. My assumption is that people take the time to clean off the flush handle when cleaning their own private bathrooms, but long-term observation of particular flush handles in public restrooms lead me to believe that they are rarely (if ever) cleaned. When you notice the same spot of grime on the same handle for a month, it's hard not to draw unsavory conclusions.
posted by gokart4xmas at 6:11 PM on September 27, 2004

There should be some sort of Olympics for bathroom usage, wherein they coat surfaces with an invisible but UV-active substance (representative of bacteria/bodily contamination) and participants compete to see who avoids the most filth.

Mo Nickels scores 10.0 for employing the flawless technique that I myself use on a daily basis.
posted by Danelope at 8:01 PM on September 27, 2004

If anyone else is using their hands, it must be tough vomiting all the time from passing other people's fecal bacteria to their lips.

Wow. Have you considered, on the other hand, that you will get sick the minute you encounter some stray bacteria while I (having spent years and years exposing myself to them) will remain healthy and imune.

Seriously, people. Read some on this topic ... you'll find out that the extreme cleanliness (some might say phobic cleanliness) of our American society is putting us at risk, as we both fail to develop needed immunities and also give our immune systems so little to fight that it turns on us, attacking the first peanut or latex ballon to cross its path.

And think about it ... so long as you don't touch your face between the flush and the turn of the faucet handle, you have a microscopic chance (pardon the pun) of having the germ actually get inside you.

I'm a woman. I don't hover. I don't flush with my foot (and I'm not afraid to openly make fun of those of you who do ... I had honestly never heard of such a thing until today). I don't carry latex gloves in my purse to protect me in unknown restrooms. I don't wrap every available surface in toilet paper and seat covers. I don't even back out of stalls where there are remaining signs of recent use, I just flush and move along and do my business, wiping up stray liquids with toilet paper as necessary.

I do my thing, I wash my hands with soap and water, and then I leave the bathroom.

Its just biology, people. If you're so afraid of germs that you have to go to such great lengths to keep from touching anything in the bathroom (and you don't have an auto-immune disorder) then you have a problem and I'd suggest considering seeking some professional help.

Trust me, your keyboard at work and the number pads on theh ATM machine are far, far more dirty than anything in a public restroom.
posted by anastasiav at 8:12 PM on September 27, 2004 [1 favorite]

I wipe down the seat, sit, then kick flush.

My latest beef with the hygiene freaks is the automatic flush. I've run into some schizophrenic ones that decide at random to start flushing before I'm done. Da noive! There was one last week in an airport that just kept going off, splashing a billion tons of water around and making a simple pee very unpleasant.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:05 PM on September 27, 2004

I've also been victimized by the automatic flush, in airport stalls especially. The stalls are cramped, and the autoflushes tend to be too sensitive and go off as you're cantilevering your ass into and out of position. So there's a premature maneuvering flush, the normal one after I do my dirty sinful business, and an extraneous after-action flush.

I agree with anastasiav's philosophy and trust my immune system and soap.

And none of you kick-flushers are coming to my house and getting all Jet Li with my toilet.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:05 PM on September 27, 2004

I think it's great how toilets evoke such discussion. Next we'll be talking about how often we crap. :)
posted by wackybrit at 12:31 AM on September 28, 2004

"The germs are the icky."

No, the icky is in your head. Germs were here before long before you and will remain long after you are gone. As a matter of fact, you are covered in germs RIGHT NOW. They are on your skin, in your hair, your mouth, nose, ears, toes, etc. Sometimes I think that people worrying about this kind of nonsense is proof that we are a successful society. That is to say: people who don't have to worry about actual survival wind up worrying about things that really dont mean very much.

Or, what anastasiav said.
posted by Irontom at 5:16 AM on September 28, 2004

As for automatic flushers, I am of divided mind. I don't like the idea that people are freed from the responsibility of flushing, but I also realize those handles get nasty.

As for toilets in particular, I had a tendency, when sitting down, to lean forward such that the sensor would think I'd left and give my butt a spritzing. Then I wrote this classic bit on e2: "How to thwart an automatically flushing toilet"

I might be the only guy to own up to it, but I often kick flush (toilets. Rarely urinals). I see no reason not to do so, particularly when bending over the bowl might mean a faceful of its contents upon hitting the handle. For that matter, I've mastered a method of pulling up my pants without bending over, more as a matter of novelty rather than hygeine.

That said, my workplace has automatically flushing urinals, but I almost always hit the manual flush button before it can flush for me. I think it gives me some vague sense of superiority over the mere microchip.

Then I wash my hands really, really, well, and with paper towel in hand, open the door and leave.

I don't think I've touched a bathroom door handle or knob on the way out since the late 90s.
posted by codger at 10:29 AM on September 28, 2004

Hey codger, thanks for the thwarting tip. I'll try it next time I'm in an airport.

Also, girls? I learned this at an Ohio gas station last week. Do not idly put your purse in the sink while you do your business. Especially if it is open and MOST especially when it's filled with electronics. Because it aint just the toilets that are automatic these days.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:45 AM on September 28, 2004