Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Toilets spew invisible aerosol plumes with every flush – here’s the proof, captured by high-powered lasers
https://theconversation.com/toilets-spew...ers-195717

EXCERPT: Every time you flush a toilet, it releases plumes of tiny water droplets into the air around you. These droplets, called aerosol plumes, can spread pathogens from human waste and expose people in public restrooms to contagious diseases.

Scientific understanding of the spread of aerosol plumes – and public awareness of their existence – has been hampered by the fact that they are normally invisible. My colleagues Aaron True, Karl Linden, Mark Hernandez, Lars Larson and Anna Pauls and I were able to use high-power lasers to illuminate these plumes, enabling us to image and measure the location and motion of spreading aerosol plumes from flushing commercial toilets in vivid detail.

[...] Aerosol particles containing pathogens are important human disease vectors. Smaller particles that remain suspended in air for a period of time can expose people to respiratory diseases like influenza and COVID-19 through inhalation. Larger particles that settle quickly on surfaces can spread intestinal diseases like norovirus through contact with the hands and mouth.

Toilet bowl water contaminated by feces can have pathogen concentrations that persist after dozens of flushes. But it is still an open question as to whether toilet aerosol plumes present a transmission risk.

While we were able visually and quantitatively to describe how aerosol plumes move and disperse, our work does not directly address how toilet plumes transmit disease, and this remains an ongoing aspect of research... (MORE - missing details)

https://youtu.be/oC_f0UAGwMU

i always put the lid down before i flush
commercial toilets have no lids
air venting in commercial toilets should vent from roof to floor

As my Dad pointed out many years ago, it was the kids of the rich who contracted polio proportionately far more than the dirt poor ones.
Dirt - as in the poor kids played in the dirt etc. and as a result developed tougher immune systems.
The high incidence of asthma in western societies is likely similarly linked to overly protective measures aimed at creating a sterile household environment. Thanks to advertising industry.

I’m pretty sure fish crap in water and who knows what else is dumped in along with it. So living as I do about 10 km from one of the largest toilet bowls in NA, that being Niagara Falls, means I probably should be dead by now. For 24 hrs a day there’s a huge plume over the Falls that’s visible for miles around and the place crawls with tourists breathing it in, many for the first time. Figure I must be a walking bacteria culture by now. Well at least I don’t piss on a tree or worse, go around sniffing bark to see who’s pissed there before me.