Crap!

August 16, 2005 11:27 PM

How dangerous to human health are faeces? Is the water in a toilet bowl a noxious soup of bugs?

OK a quick confession: I just dropped my security pass in the (still fresh and clean looking) toilet bowl. Short expletive later, I dove in and fished it out. Then washed my hands and the pass for several minutes (without a bactericide, just detergent). Given that there were no visible marks on the bowl and it would have been disinfected yesterday, how poxy is that water really? What’s the E coli count likely to be? Should I have washed for longer?

More generally, what are the diseases that humans can pass to each other through sharing their shit? What are we really concerned about when using E coli as the surrogate measure? And how infectious are these nasties? In the movie Salo, apparently a man is filmed eating excrement. What would happen to him, a nasty case of the runs? Hitler liked to be defecated on too, apparently.

Sorry for the scatology, I’m curious. I did quite a bit of undergrad microbiology, and we discussed sanitation, but not enough, obviously.

posted by wilful to Science & Nature (18 answers total)

Worms come to mind, tapeworm, roundworm, and other worms. Plus cholera, etc.

Just looked and Wiki says this about Coprophagia

And human feces is killing the coral.

I don't think your hands or pass are any more 'dirty' than if you hadn't washed up after using the toilet. But here's A Great Moment in Science (Flushing Out The Truth) that explains how we're all brushing our teeth with toilet water.

I've always been a bit curious too, and since I'm bored tonight...
posted by LadyBonita at 11:56 PM on August 16, 2005

Off the top of my (sleepy) head, hepatitis A is usually transmitted by feces, 90% of the time because someone doesn't wash his/her hands after using the bathroom or changing a dirty diaper and then proceeds to handle food.

Typhoid fever (caused by Salmonella typhi), dysentery, cholera, and a deadly form of gastroenteritis caused by E.coli H:157 can all be contracted by drinking fecally contaminated water, and usually it can't be determined if the contamination is from humans or animals. H:157 is responsible for the illnesses and deaths of several children and adults in the U.S. at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants in 1993. It causes kidney failure, and is the chief culprit behind the warning to thoroughly cook all ground beef.

Practically speaking in your own home, be sure to wash your pass thoroughly in warm soapy water, dry it thoroughly, and do the same with your hands. Bacteria do not grow (much) on clean, dry surfaces such as a washed security pass. Bacteria love wet, warm, and dark conditions, so by washing and drying you've done half the battle. I wouldn't use your pass as an eating utensil, but for its usual function it should be fine.

Your hands obviously carry bacteria all the time, but if you washed them well I wouldn't worry too much about hurting yourself or others. Frequent handwashing is next to godliness. :)
posted by lambchop1 at 12:03 AM on August 17, 2005

Relax. Everything you come into contact with has bacteria on it, they are really only harmful to you when a lot of them overwhelm your body's defenses.

Eating faeces will almost certainly cause you problems. But if you've washed your hands carefully after handling "greywater", you will emerge unscathed.

When I lived in India for almost a year, I did as Indians did...i.e. wash my bum with a cup of water using my bare hands after taking a dump. The only times I became ill were when I actually ingested unsterilized water. I had a full check up on my return to Canada, and I remain in perfect health to this day.
posted by randomstriker at 12:08 AM on August 17, 2005

BTW, is it just me, or does this post reminds anyone else of The Aristocrats?
posted by randomstriker at 12:16 AM on August 17, 2005

Working in a pediatrics clinic we had frantic calls from parents with kids eating their own feces almost weekly. I don't remember anything ever coming of it.

So while I don't recommend it...
posted by justgary at 12:58 AM on August 17, 2005

Oh justgary, ugh. Maybe I'll have kids and if they ever do that I will tell their first date all about it in front of them.

I had a handwashing question that is related: Do you recommend bar soap, foaming soap, or liquid soap? I am pretty anal (haha, zing) about washing myself, so I almost get sick when I pick up a bar of soap in the shower and see someones pubic hair stuck to it. It happens so goddamn much where I live it is disgusting.
posted by Dean Keaton at 1:06 AM on August 17, 2005

Dean Keaton, in your situation, I'd just get my own bar of soap and keep it to myself.
posted by corvine at 5:20 AM on August 17, 2005

For what it's worth, Wired Magazine had an article in their 13.05 issue called "Germs Aren't as Scary as You Think". It basically talked about how you're more at risk to come in contact with germs on items such as your desk, telephone and shopping cart handles, than you are on a toilet seat. Though, the inside of the toilet bowl was not discussed.
posted by bwilms at 7:19 AM on August 17, 2005

wash hands, AND use hand sanitizer gel too
posted by seawallrunner at 8:20 AM on August 17, 2005

You're overreacting. As long as you give yourself a decent handwashing and don't lick your security pass, you're fine. You don't need to scrub endlessly, or use santizer whatever, or any of the crap. Please, folks, people have survived thousands of years without hand sanitizer- it's a total scam, marketing designed to make you buy products out of fear.

Penn and Teller's Bullshit did a segment about cleanliness once. They didn't test the inside of a toilet bowl, but they found that a toilet seat is WAY less contaminated than things like a phone. I ride the NYC subway to work every day, and I'm much more skeeved out by what's on all those handholds than a bathroom.
posted by mkultra at 8:35 AM on August 17, 2005

mkultra - Add to that the University of Arizona study that our keyboards are insanely (>400 times) more "contaminated" than our toilets. Yikes!
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 8:57 AM on August 17, 2005

Remember that toilets tend to be much colder than bacteria like, so any nasty little things that may have been there wouldn't survive very long.
posted by dagnyscott at 9:01 AM on August 17, 2005

Fecal matter is the most common agent responsible for turning clean drinking water into non-potable water.

That being said, I don't think you set out to lick your pass clean. Give it a light bleach-solution spray, as there are some types of bacteria that can only be killed by a bleach rinse.
posted by dreamsign at 9:54 AM on August 17, 2005

If you actually care about this, just wash your hands in Isopropyl Alcohol, along with your security pass.

But, good lord, DOGS *DRINK* FROM THE TOILET AND DON'T DIE! Haven't you ever heard a bad pet owner just say you need to leave the lid open for the dog? No? Don't hang around those types of people? Neither do I but I know they exist and their angry mutts love to nip at my heels if I ever have to visit them. :-(

Even if you assume the toilet were full of shit (ha ha) recall stories of abuse where parents have fed their children this. While the children always grow up psychologically disturbed, their health is often intact if they are removed from the abuse before it turns more physical.

So, should you be worried? No.
posted by shepd at 9:56 AM on August 17, 2005

My kids would always play in the back yard and put the doggie nuggets in their mouth. This was when they were around 2. I am so glad this phase has passed, but they are no worse for the wear now. Really, we DID feed them adequately, so no false child abuse accusations, please.
Disclaimer: please do not try the doggie nuggets at your home
posted by cincidog at 10:04 AM on August 17, 2005

"Dr. Gerba has also studied germ counts in the house, and by doing so, discovered the right way to flush the toilet. You should flush with the lid down.

If you flush with the lid up, a polluted plume of bacteria and water vapour erupts out of the flushing toilet bowl. The polluted water particles float for a few hours around your bathroom before they all land. Some of them will land on your tooth brush."

EEEWWWW. Now I want to gargle with bleach, or drink some.
posted by davy at 11:26 AM on August 17, 2005

If you, and only you, use a toilet that has just been disinfected, everything in that bowl has recently been inside your body. Aside from a reaction like davy's, it's not likely to do you any harm. So YOU can leave the lid up, dip your badge in the bowl, bob for apples, whatever -- just don't let your SO do the same.
posted by joaquim at 11:37 AM on August 17, 2005

cincidog, sorry, I don't mean to allude to any parent being like that, I'm talking about things like nutty parents that cage their children, etc.
posted by shepd at 12:05 PM on August 17, 2005