The Dirtiest place in your bathroom

Dirty, Dirty Toilet

When using public toilets – they don’t have lids – but have that super-powerful flush and there you are in this enclosed space. Ugh! It’s one thing being at home with your own bacteria, but could anything be filthier than a public toilet – and now with that bacteria-mist? No, so open the door, flush with your foot, close the door and get far away. I hate even thinking about this.

“Lack of knowledge about where germs lurk is a real health problem because people touch these objects and 80 percent of infections are spread through hand contact. The solution is to practice proper hand hygiene by washing with soap and water or by using an alcohol-based sanitizer.

Fifty to 80 percent of all food-borne illnesses originate in the home. Food-borne pathogens cause 6.5 million cases of gastroenteritis and 9,000 deaths per year. Twenty percent of food-poisoning cases are blamed on home contamination, more than any other source.

It’s Not a Recliner – This I could never understand. There is a lid and isn’t it there for some reason – like closing the toilet. Do people actually sit down and lean back to recline when using the toilet? If so, I don’t think it’s healthy. Then too, I think of it like a lid on a jar. You open the jar and after you take out the pickle, you then close the jar by putting the lid back on. A lid is supposed to close…well, something. I don’t think it’s decorative.

Generally, you’ll find about 50 bacteria per square inch on a toilet seat — that’s the average. While that may sound gross, there are definitely things around your house that are less clean in comparison. Your kitchen sponge, for instance, has about 10 million bacteria per square inch. That’s 200,000 times dirtier than the toilet seat, and makes it pretty much the filthiest thing in your house. Your cutting board, too, is a bacteria breeding ground, as are all your doorknobs. But that doesn’t mean the toilet seat is off the hook.

Let’s talk first about what everyone assumes you’ll catch from visiting a public toilet. Sexually transmitted bacteria (such as chlamydia) and viruses (such as genital herpes) are passed along by skin-to-skin contact. Since those microbes die pretty much as soon as they hit the cold toilet seat, you can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s so unlikely to catch an STI from a toilet that we’re not going to mention it again. But there are a few infections that you really can pick up from an unsanitary porcelain throne, though the odds are still pretty low. But if you’re at the right place (sitting on a toilet seat) at the right time (when the seat’s contaminated with feces) it could happen (if you don’t wash and dry your hands thoroughly).