by Chris Melore
NEW YORK — If you’ve ever been struck by a water droplet after flushing the toilet, it can certainly gross you out. Now imagine that feeling multiplied by a thousand! New images of what’s really happening when you flush the toilet is giving nearly everyone in a survey incentive to close the lid...
Particles coming from a urinal flush “manifests an external spread type, with more than 57% of the particles traveling away from the urinal,” according to that study’s author. The spray hits urinal users in the thigh in just 5.5 seconds, that study shows. Spray from a normal toilet reaches higher than the thigh, but it takes about 35 seconds to hit a person.
A similar study also warns that toilets could even spread the coronavirus since research shows the virus is found in human waste. For the study, researchers created computational models to track the spread of aerosols. The model shows that the droplets fly about three feet above the bowl, and they can stay in the air for about a minute since they are so small.
This is a condensed version of the article. To read the full article, click HERE.
Personal Note: Some commenters on the original article page are claiming
these images and statistics are made-up.
However, let’s be honest…we’ve all flushed with the lid of the toilet
bowl up and we have at some point felt water splatter hit our pants. Therefore, logic insists that there is truth
to this article and its statistics.
In
your own home, everyone who lives there shares the same germs anyway, and so
mask-wearing and lid closing are not as serious an issue within your own home
with familiar occupants. The issue grows when you are using a public restroom,
though.
Solution…simply close the lid on the toilet bowl. If there is no toilet seat cover in the
public restroom, simply stand back, use your foot to flush the toilet, and you
will cut down on the direct spray. The
thing to keep in mind is that the water droplets containing bacteria and
viruses would go airborne, and so you will need to make sure that you keep your
facemasks on while in public restrooms. Ultimately,
try to go to the restroom before leaving home.
If you must use a public restroom at work or while traveling, simply
take precautions. If you must use a
public restroom, you may want to consider using plastic gloves while in there
to eliminate the need to wash your hands at the public sink. After all, you could be washing your hands,
dry them, and the contaminated water droplets land on your clean hands as you
walk out the door.
Be Logical...This
idea of public restrooms being a concern for health and safety right now is not
illogical. Consider the last place you visited. Were the restrooms
available to the public? They weren’t
for me. I recently visited Dollar Tree. While it has always had public restrooms on-site, since the coronavirus pandemic began, this location has shut down their restroom for public safety. Let’s be
logical. Let’s observe what our
businesses and neighbors are doing. Let’s
make wise decisions for our health. When
I protect you and you protect me, we will get through this health risk quicker.
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