In many homes there is often an ongoing battle over who left the toilet seat up – typically caused by a man. While this may seem harmless, one expert has warned that a similar habit could have particularly nasty consequences.
More specifically leaving the toilet lid up when flushing is a sure fire way to spread unwanted bacteria around the bathroom, a doctor said.
Microbes and pathogens could even spread to items that will later come into contact with your face such as toothbrushes and towels.
NHS surgeon Doctor Karan Rajan took to social media platform TikTok to explain more.
To illustrate his point he showed footage of pathogens highlighted in neon green being expelled from a toilet while being flushed.
He said: “If you don’t shut the lid of your toilet after you flush, you definitely will after seeing this.
“Your puny human eyes can’t see this, but every time you flush the toilet with the lid open you create a raging sewage volcano.
“This allows aerosolised toilet juice to travel far and wide.
“To capture this disgusting, tidal wave of microscopic waves of pathogens scientists used bright green lasers and camera equipment to capture the movement of tiny water droplets.”
According to Dr Rajan, in one experiment the contaminated droplets moved at two metres per second reaching heights of one and a half metres above the toilet bowl.
“Some of the smallest droplets could linger in the air for more than several minutes, placing them at optimal nose height for unsuspecting humans,” he said.
Dr Rajan warned that pathogens within the droplets could contain E coli, adenovirus and norovirus,
These can all be “spewed into the air riding on the back” of these tiny water droplets.
To avoid this he advised keeping the toilet seat closed when you flush.
But he also recommended regularly disinfecting the toilet bowl and toilet brush to reduce the pathogen load.
He added: “As well as moving your toothbrush away from the line of fire considering you put this in your mouth every single day as well.
“As anything else you put on your face like brushes or combs, unless you like them covered in microscopic poo flakes.”