Health Care

There are many different instances when we will have no choice except to use a public bathroom. When we travel, shop, or go out to eat, there is usually no way to avoid it.

At some time or another we have all known what it is like to encounter a public bathroom that just looks entirely too nasty to even consider using, but sometimes there is no other choice.

In case you did not know, there are things that are growing in public bathrooms that you would really probably prefer not to have to know about and thank goodness we can not actually see them because they would probably scare us to death! Toilet bowls alone can be home to up to or more than 3.2 million bacteria per square inch.

Bathroom countertops can have 452 bacteria per square inch, bathroom faucet handles can have 6,267 bacteria per square inch and trash cans can have 411 per square inch. Other places with plenty of bacteria are the toilet flush handle and the bathroom light switch.

These numbers are the amounts of bacteria found in an average home. Just imagine what the numbers can be for a public bathroom! Some of the worst bacteria that can be found in bathrooms are staphylococcus, salmonella, campylobacter, streptococcus, and the ever popular e-coli. These bacteria have the potential to make us extremely ill and can even cause death in very bad cases.

There is usually an attempt to keep a public bathroom clean by most responsible businesses, but even those who try will fall short. Not necessarily through neglect, but just because with so many people different people coming and literally going all the time, it would be impossible to maintain a perfectly sanitized bathroom at any time, much less all the time. Believe it, just because a public bathroom might look spotless and smell really great for a bathroom, it defiantly is not.

The solution for coming out of a public bathroom with as few bacteria exposures as possible, are as simple as what your mother probably always told you. Avoid coming in direct physical contact with a toilet seat if you can. If you can not do this, use a paper toilet seat cover if they are available.

Toilet paper will do in a pinch. Wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly and use a hand sanitizer if you have one. Use a clean paper towel to turn off the faucet and exit the bathroom. You just might get out of a public bathroom alive!