SO GROSS
I’m a cleaning expert – people always forget to close the toilet lid when flushing and it’s making them sick
APPARENTLY, many of us aren't using the toilet correctly.
According to a professional cleaner, we should be putting the toilet seat down before we flush for a sickening reason.
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Katy Kremer, who described herself as "your cleaning lady," revealed people need to close their toilet seats prior to flushing due to something called the plume effect.
"When you flush a toilet, it sends a cloud of toilet water and fecal matter into the air up to six feet," she said in a she posted online.
As she explained the effect, she shared pictures from a study that used black light to show toilet water spraying out of the toilet and over the seat after being flushed.
After admitting she felt the information was "pretty terrifying," Kremer added: "So this means the water is probably on your toilet paper, definitely on your bath mat, and probably on your toothbrush."
Kremer's followers seemed to be equally as disgusted by the revelation, with one claiming her day was ruined after seeing the video.
"I am never using a public bathroom ever in my life," another disappointed user wrote.
A third surprised viewer complimented her for sharing both a horror story and a cleaning tip in one try.
Meanwhile, others claimed they keep their toilet brushes in the medicine cabinet specifically to help keep them clean and away from the plume effect.
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SHOULD YOU BE WORRIED?
While you may certainly feel queasy about the cleanliness of your toilet, air, and everything in your bathroom, there are conflicting data about how harmful toilet plumes actually are.
Richard Watkins, M.D., an infectious disease physician and associate professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, told that there has been little evidence that the sprayed fecal matter has negative effects on people's health.
"Whether toilet plume makes people sick is controversial and not conclusively proven," he noted.
However, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said there is a reason to worry.
In an referencing epidemiologic studies that had been conducted prior to June 2020, the MIT medical team wrote the research "found evidence implicating toilet plumes in disease outbreaks on cruise ships, in restaurants, on airplanes, and within apartment complexes."
They added: "Virtually all of these cases involved pathogens that are both highly concentrated in feces or vomit and able to survive on surfaces for a relatively long time — like the norovirus, which is not only copiously excreted in feces and vomit but also able to survive for weeks on hard surfaces and resistant to some common cleaning agents."
So while your home toilet might not cause you issues, you should be more mindful when using public toilets, which often don't have lids.
And if you are now worried about how clean your bathroom actually is, there are plenty of other tips online to help keep it as sparkling fresh as possible.
For instance, another cleaning guru previously shared how she sanitizes her toilet to prevent black mold from growing in it.
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Plus, a housekeeper revealed exactly how she keeps urine smells out of the bathroom – it only takes two common items.
And a self-described "Queen of Cleantok" shared her simple recipe for lime power balls, which she drops in the toilet to keep it fresh between deep cleanses.
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