What can you catch from using a public toilet?
351466
Your toilet seat is cleaner than your keyboard \n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\nposted 9:20am EST Tue May 14 2002 - submitted by Thomas \nNEWS\nA recent study done by Clorox aimed to find the most germ-ridden surfaces in the workplace. The surface would be a "high-touch" area, meaning it was touched frequently by workers nearly all day long. Remarkably, toilet seats were found to be one of the cleaner surfaces, but telephones and computer keyboards were found to be some of the most filthy.\n\nThere are several obvious factors at play here. The more often something is touched, the more germs it collects. On a busy work day it was found that the average employee is touching ten items per minute. Also, janitors are expected to clean toilets regularly, but are often asked not to disturb workspaces. The study found that bacteria can grow 19 to 31% a day in a workstation if nothing is done. Employees who frequently wipe down their areas with anti-bacterial products were found to reduce the bacteria count 99.9% in two days' time.\n\nThe study was conducted in Tucson, San Francisco, New York, and Tampa. Tucson was found to have the cleanest desks, and New York was found to have the dirtiest. The researchers believe Tucson's desert climate is not as inviting to bacteria. The most germ-ridden surface in Tucson was, in fact, the water fountain handle, demonstrating that moisture is an important factor. Clorox also speculates that in "busier" cities employees are more likely to eat in their workplace, which increases the risk of bacteria spreading.\n\nThe dirtiest areas in the workplace were telephones, but fax machines, water fountain handles, microwave door handles, and computer keyboards were not far behind in the 7,000 items sampled in the survey. Scott Harper, environmental health and safety director for Pima Community College concludes:\n\nI don't want to create a paranoia about touching anything, but we can go a long ways to increase awareness about the benefits of washing your hands or wiping down your desk.\n\nWhat diseases can you catch from toilet seats?\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nDear Straight Dope:\n\nWhat EXACTLY can you catch from sitting on a toilet seat? I took an informal survey and asked several of my girlfriends if they sit on public toilet seats, and 9 of the 11 of them never do. When I asked why, all of them had some variation of "You never know what you can catch from a toilet seat." So, please clear this up for all of us women who are afraid to sit down in a public restroom. --Nicole Anderson, Millis, MA\n\nSDSTAFF Jill replies:\n\nYou can get cooties, and that's about it. Sexually transmitted diseases are spread via sexual intercourse with an infected person. Most of them are spread more easily from male to female. The diseases vary in how infectious they are, but none of them are spread on toilet seats (well, assuming you're using the toilet seat for what it was intended). Most bugs don't tend to live on cool, hard surfaces.\n\nI could add that a couple of diseases - syphilis and herpes - can be spread by direct non-sexual contact with infectious lesions, so make sure there is not an infected person already on the toilet when you sit down. One should consider HOW people sit on toilet seats. Genital and anal infections most likely would not come in contact with the seat in normal use. Intact skin is a good barrier against most disease organisms ... unless of course one were to pick up a bacterium or virus on the seat, then immediately plant their buttocks on someone's nose and mouth. If this were to happen to me, disease transmission would be the least of my concerns.\n\nAs far as other kinds of diseases that have different routes of transmission, such as oral/fecal or airborne, the hands are more to blame for spreading these diseases than the bott
35351
WASH YOUR HANDS CONSTANTLY!!! Like when you come back from like the supermarket or someplace like that. Don't touch handles on like bathrooms (wear gloves if nesassary). These are some of the most highly places for getting sicknesses. Supermarket shopping carts are the most germ ridden things ever. Be careful and stay clean.:)
522652
Feces contains harmful chemicals
135559
Yes, you can get it. if you are used to having unprotected sex in Public bathrooms.
231149
its a code that every public business has to abide by for sanitary reasons. if they do not have the open front toilet seats they will have points taken off of their heath inspection i believe it is called. might be able to find out more from city hall in your town.
558944
hey is saw a stall once and someone had crapped all over the toilet, floor, wall , and left their crappy underwear on the floor! dumps will always be funny!
74033
First, I would finish my business in there. Second, I would take the toilet plunger, plunge it into the toilet and then take it outside and inform the guy where it was and if he doesn't leave immediately, he's getting the contents in his face.
523128
Have you heard the joke about the 1000 stopped up toilets?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNevermind,it aint nothing but a bunch of crap.
235940
yes. i'm not a germaphobe with anything else, but public restrooms are used by the masses and better safe than sorry.
634410
Smart-aleck answer: stop letting the Ty-D-Bowl man play in your toilet tank.  Don't put the toilet bowl cleaner in the system in the first place.\n\nSerious answer -- distill the water to purify it.\n\nOr are you really looking to remove staining in the porcelain?
934012
Technically yes. Realistically no. However, if you rub your butt and genitals around in someone else's fresh body excretions, you can get a disease. Usually, the bacteria/viruses in blood and excretions die off fairly fast once exposed to air, especially if the stuff is already crusty. You skin is an intact barrier and gives sufficient protection from unsanitary places. You would have to get direct contact with the genital region in order for this to happen, and the excretions would have to be fairly fresh.\n\nActually, studies have shown that one of the most unsanitary places in a bathroom is the bathroom door handle (next to the flush button, of course). It's full of bacteria found in urine and feces, and while it's not easy to get an infection from that, it's still gross. That's what you want to avoid touching after you washed your hands.
522844
Well, you can step outside for some "fresh air", excuse yourself to the bathroom...or (this option not for the faint of hart) lie on your back, throw your legs up in the air, grab a lighter, light it and stick it next to your butt, fart and shoot a flame out your butt. Keep in mind you need the right crowd for this...I suggest a crowd of drunks. Keep in mind I've only observed this...not actually participated.
302150
cough so they won't mistakenly open your stall door, then let er rip. \n\nonce i was at the denver international airport and i was taking a piss, and some dude was taking a noisy a$$ sh*t.  all the sudden he expelled the loudest piece of crap imaginable, it splashed loud and everything.  then some dude peeing in the urinal next to me yells, "ALL RIGHT!!!" super loud.  that's how taking a crap in a public place should be - like a sporting event.
479958
Count how many times you are taking dump per day, try taking a dump OUTSIDE so instead of counting tiles you can count cars passing by. (Be careful of police cars).
981321
I don't have a toilet seat, I'm homeless. If you want to know where I rid myself of bodily liquids & solids I simply hover over someones garden, the pea pods really soak up the moisture..
1026431
At my workplace, I finally posted a sign ...\n\n"Ladies, if you piss like a man, then raise the seat like a man, dammit!"\n\n... and it actually worked.\n\nIn public restrooms, I try to use the handicapped stall with the handrails, so that I can "hover" more easily -- after raising the seat of course! -- or to use my "urinette". A urinette is a kind of contoured funnel with a long tube that allows a women to urinate standing without making a mess of her clothing. Many camping supply stores sell them for hikers.\n\nBut to answer your question: Because they are filthy swine with no consideration for others. It is unspeakably vile to leave urine, feces, sputum, nose matter, and other bodily effusions lying about where others are sure to come into contact with them. These are probably the same people who resist cleaning up after their dogs.
645385
I once went in to a public restroom and apparently someone had diahhrea and poop was splattered all over the stall,walls and floor. Practically SPRAYED. Some people are not from this country and are used to pooping,peeing,ect in drains.I used to work ata hotel where that sort of thing happend all the time..DO NOT GO IN THAT STALL. You could get an intestinal disorder from other peoples poop.