Here are two reasons to make you think twice about using a public restroom: staphylococcus and bacillus.
The first is a microbe that causes fevers and chills. The second is also a microbe, but this one causes diarrhea. And they are both commonly found on the door handles, faucets and paper-towel dispensers in public restrooms.
That’s what researchers found by swabbing the surfaces of bathrooms in airplanes, fast food restaurants and other crowded spots. The moral of this story: You might just want to hold it until you get home.
According a paper scheduled to be presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Boston this week, we might be losing the war on bathroom contamination.
“I was surprised (at the sheer quantity of creepy crawlies) but, at same time, I wasn’t surprised because people use these things and people touch things,” said Dr. Lennox Archibald, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine….
“For several restrooms, the quantity of microorganisms was too numerous to count,” Archibald’s paper reports. “…To date, there have been virtually no quantitative or qualitative assessments of the range of bacteria contaminating public restrooms.”
More vie MSNBC: “Don’t touch! Study confirms your worst fears about public potties.”