There are more effective interventions, says Paddy, like making toilet bowls with shields that go between the bowl and the seat. Currently, these are largely used in healthcare settings to protect nurses and doctors from patients’ flushed pathogens, says Paddy. There are also air sprays that have been demonstrated to be effective in sanitising the air and surfaces in bathrooms, therefore helping to counteract the dissemination of pathogens via toilet “sneezes”.
Another option is to just flush and then leave the stall immediately. “I usually do the flush and run,” says Gerba. He also recommends waiting 10 minutes before going into a public toilet after somebody else, though that might be tricky to achieve in practice.
Then there are mobile phones. It’s not recommended to use your phone while in the toilet stall, says Roberts – your phone is already exceptionally dirty, as you take it with you everywhere, rest it on every ledge, and touch it all the time. If you bring it to the toilet, you’ll risk it touching pathogens that have been sprayed around the stall, and then you’ll carry them around with you even after washing your hands.
The simplest thing you can do is to always wash your hands immediately after you go to the bathroom, says Gerba, who notes that the average person in Tucson, Arizona, only spends 11 seconds washing their hands, while the Centers for Disease Control in the United States suggests handwashing for 20 seconds. “Only about one in five actually wash their hands adequately,” says Gerba.
So, to prevent catching a disease in the public restroom, wash your hands. Better still, add an extra step of applying hand sanitiser too, as the combination is significantly more protective than handwashing alone. And try not to let the fear of pathogens lurking in toilets keep you up at night – your risk is (probably) lower than you think.
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