The Right Way To Flush

Dr. Douglass echoes the very sentiment my Mother had: if you don’t close the lid before you flush, you’re inviting all sorts of bacteria to be present on your toothbrush, your hair brush and most every surface. So be a sweetie, put down the seatie!
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by Dr. Douglass

Turns out the ladies had this one right all along — you should put the toilet seat and lid down, and do it BEFORE you flush.

Flushing with the lid up can send a nearly invisible cloud of bacteria-laced potty water out of the toilet and across the room, turning your bathroom into a giant petri dish.

And now, a series of experiments confirms that these tainted toilet droplets can harbor one of the nastiest gut bacteria of all: the Clostridium difficile responsible for diarrhea and other serious and even deadly stomach infections.

Tests carried out at Britain’s Leeds Teaching Hospital found that water particles with C.diff from infected guts can rise about 10 inches from an open toilet during the flush, and then land on the toilet seat and other nearby surfaces.

The study in the International Journal of Hospital Infection found an average of 47 C.diff-contaminated water droplets on and near the toilet seat– and they remained there for up to 90 minutes after the flush.

That’s plenty bad when it’s your own bacteria — but at least it’s your own bacteria. Think about how much worse it is for the next person to use the toilet… and how much worse it could be if YOU’RE that next person.

And if you think that’s bad, other studies have found that these invisible clouds of germy poo water can travel up to eight feet from the toilet — sending nasty fecal coliforms and other disease-causing bacteria straight to your toothbrush.

Try not to think about that next time you brush your teeth.

Original Post: http://douglassreport.com/2012/01/29/right-way-to-flush-2/