Flushing Toilet With Open Lid May Spread Germs Three Feet Up In Air
Don't flush toilet with an open lid, always use toilet flush with lid closed on bowl.
In case you were one of those people that flushed their toilet with the lid open (maybe because you liked to see your hard work literally flush down the drain), you need to stop doing that as it can cause harmful germs to spread outside the toilet bowl, no kidding.
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This is according to a study conducted by researchers from Yangzhou University in China, who's warning the world against improper toilet flushing habits.
They conducted simulations to learn the effects of toilet flushing on the movement of water and any potentially infectious viral particles.
How to flush a toilet safely
For the simulation, they used single-inlet toilets (this is the most common one, as most Indian households have this) as well as annular flushing.
Researchers discovered that both the flushing mechanisms resulted in the generation of plumes of aerosolised particles that easily moved out of the bowl, into the air post flushing.
Their simulations also revealed that 40-60 percent of particles have a high chance of getting out of the bowl and spread as high as three feet off the ground.
What¡¯s surprising is that even after a minute of flushing the particles continued to travel upwards.
Ji-Xiang Wang
Can this spread COVID-19?
Studies in the past have shown that COVID-19 infection was found in human poop of an infected individual. So does this mean flushing it wrongly will spread the novel coronavirus? The short answer to that is we don't know yet.
Researchers haven¡¯t been able to give us a concrete answer to that COVID-19 question, however with so many droplets releasing in the air post a flush, it surely sounds the alarm for us to adopt better flushing habits for increased personal hygiene and safety.
Ji-Xiang Wang, of Yangzhou University, said, ¡°Toilets are a daily necessity but also become dangerous if used improperly, especially against the current scenario of a global pandemic.¡±
Researchers in their paper urge people to close the lid before flushing, especially in common toilets that are going to be used by many others. They also ask people to regularly clean the toilet as viral particles from previous faeces can survive on toilet surfaces for a considerable time.
This along with washing hands thoroughly after using the toilet will surely result in a safer experience for you and people around you.
