it amazes me that people have no time to wash their hands.I have seen it in loos myself,.how can people go out and touch food,money,anything,knowing ly disthey did not wash their hands?!!totally disgusting.I hope those people do not serve me food.Isnt it just common sense and basic self hygiene to wash?!

I have seen many bathrooms in my days. I use to work janitorial. What I have seen can turn your stomach. I also know a fact that will completely surprize you all. If a bathroom is kept clean with proper disinfectants 99% of all germs are killed. The surprizing fact is that your office if you share with other people carries more germs than your public bathroom. Highest consentration of germs can be a common dipping bowl such as a church may use before entering can carry a lot of germs. This is due that a lot of people do not wash their hands, or cough in their hands.

Unclean bathrooms can carry a lot of germs. There are people that pee on the toilet seat. Some can have things like craps or infestations. It is always good to wipe down the seat before using. After use good practice to wash hands. If there is a door use a hand santatizier after leaving a bathroom. You will lesson the chance of bacterial infections.

I say wiping your hands on your shirt works well enough, after you've washed your hands just wipe it on your shirt you wash your clothes eventually, and you save a tree, unless there's a door, then use that paper towel to open it, if there is no paper towel, then I'm afraid you have to use your sleeve, or wait for someone else to open it...

It amazes me how many "environmentally conscious" people are more worried about saving a tree than preventing an illness. It is common sense and scientifically proven that barriers can limit exposure to microbes. That is one reason physicians and nurses wear gloves, masks, and place removable paper on examination benches (all barriers). While using toilet paper on the seat and extra paper to dry my hands and open the doors may not be 100% effective, it will reduce my exposure to some of the nasty things that many of you not taking precautions bring with you to our shared spaces.

my mother was way ahead of us. she always made me put toilet paper on the seat, from the time i was 2 yrs of age.i am now 67, she died at age 91. i still practice it.

#3. Flushing before you sit down makes the toilet more sanitary. Truth. ????

Flushing, just like peeing, disrupts the surface water creating a mist that carries bacteria too. So whether you flush first or just go ahead and pee it will have the same result, mist carrying bacteria that can evaporate and be inhaled.

Costco in Sudbury has the right idea. There is no door to open, you just wash and leave. All public washrooms should be like that. If all of these precautions are necessary to keep everyone healthy, how come there is anyone still living in the places with no inside plumbing or running water?

i say that we're all crazy for thinking that we could "beat the germs". i mean, they're EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there's no where to hide when your facing germs! but, we could all do our part, cough cough, ladies, when in a public washroom to minimize the amount of germs we are faced with everytime...come on people! a little common sense never urt anyone...as uncommon as it is... >:(

Been in many a washroom, wash your hands and where do they put the gargage can, right beside the sink, or built in, DUH... No, it should be by the door, so you use the paper towel to open the door and then throw it into the trash... Are you listening, Red Lobster. If I'm in one of these places I simply use a little footwork, trash cans aren't that heavy.

good call for the ladies handbags. . is everyone forgetting about the currency that changes hands every minute of every day????. As for the pee on the seats, probably a group of teens roaming the mall, who wouldn't dare think of leaving that mess behind at home but when out with a group , it's cool or funny. Don't worry, we'll see these people in a couple of years, black circles around the eyes a not so amused look on their face, .. a direct result of following all those crowds of really cool people who can't get a job anywhere else because they're too cool for an education, As for the tree huggers, unless you live in the forest ,hunt for your food,and live off the land. your just as much to blame as the rest of us. bottom line , eat well,live well .
do on to others as you would wish for yourself. teach your kids respect ( for others as well as them selves) take what you need and need what you take . if everyone could have an hour to walk in someones shoes who is not so fortunate we all might have a different outlook on life.

When put to good use paper and other technology is never a waste. No reasonable person should ever say that it is wasteful by using paper towels or using the required amount of soap and water to keep one's hands relatively clean throughout the day. To say that it is, is taking a desire to be responsible with the environment to such an unreasonable extreme as to deny our right to be in it and also to defend ourselves against infection. Using more than is necessary to achieve a same end result could be considered a waste as could cleaning when there has been no reasonable chance of contamination, but I do believe that preventing ill health that could conceivably end up increasing the rate of entropy is not a waste, but an investment. Everything we do creates some disorder in the world, even our breathing and while it is indeed very worthy to pay close attention to our processes as to ensure minimum disorder, but it is not reasonable from one who wants to live to say that we have no right to create any at all in the service of public health.

I loooove how the tree-hugging hippie twits suggest NOT using paper towel to wash up, instead cheering for....wait for it....MAGICAL HAND SANITIZER!!! Unless this stuff is produced by happy thoughts and leperchaun farts I'm pretty sure it is actually produced by refining oil products and massive amounts of alcohol. So I think a little paper towel is probably best for us and the environment, eh?

Squatting? Toilet on the floor? Not advisable. You have to aim right to shit through the hole on the floor. If you don't, well you leave your shit on the floor. Very disgusting. I know, I have use it and I have cleaned it. This type of toilet is used in African and some European countries not just in Asia. You don't want that in Canada. The sitting toilet is more hygienic. You can line up the seat with with toilet paper before you sit on it. I learnt this from the movie, "Copycat" with Sigourney Weaver.

Would like to say that some of the Walmart washrooms I have been to are some of the filthiest I have ever seen. I don't use the washrooms there anymore will wait till I get home where mine are clean and sparkling. Seen enough. People don't flush toilets, yuck!!! sickening, women I might add.
Come on people get with the program.

All toilets should be like those in modern airports, flushes the minute you stand up. Also the toilets that clean your bum with a flush of water! Now there's a concept, nice clean water (warm), then you get air-dryed and it flushes all by itself! Wish I could afford one of those in my home. And then there are the sinks where you step on a plate at the bottom to turn on the water. The ideal washroom!

just hold it till you get home!!

Some of these concerns can be addressed by improved design, but sometimes that means using more real estate space. For instance, washrooms with no doors like at some newer movie theaters so need to open a door after you washed your hands. Faucets, toilets and urinals that flush by sensors as many washrooms now have. They use energy and are more expensive initially, but again, reduce the hand touching requirement. Maybe the Chinese and other Asian countries have it right with the squatting, that is, toilet in the floor. The other side benefit, possible relief to hemorrhoid sufferers b/c you avoid sitting. Think improved design.

Omg do any of you tree huggers even know anything about soft wood lumber and how fast it grows? Believe me when I say I've seen popular trees grow to full size within a matter of years. About half my yard is natural forest. I am constantly battling back popular tree's They grow anywhere and everywhere and so fast I've become to think of them as weeds. I love my little forest but I love my lawn too. I am not saying waste paper or anything we still use energy to make the stuff but trust me when I say we are not ruining any forests by using a little extra to keep the population more healthy. So STFU.

I prefer to just piss in the floor drain, thus eliminating the need for the paper around the seat or the spray left from hovering or the need to decide whether to use my hand or foot to flush.

Seriously people, how about just learning to use proper hand washing technics and teaching your little brats not to put everything including their hands into their mouths???

I wonder how much more suceptable we are now to bacteria's and diseases as a result of our over use of sanitizers and anti-bacterial soaps and sprays....

Interesting how, with the slightest provocation the envronmentalist posting comments crawl out of their houses/apartments (made of tree killing wood), in their leather (cow killing) shoes, and sit down at their mass produced chemical and metal filled computers and blow their trumpets at all of us who are using too much toilet paper.Oh and by the way your Prius's still need gas!

Preflush wastes water? Only out of the supply pipe. The water is treated and returned. It does not disapper never to be seen again. And if it boters you that someone used it to go to the washroom remember, a fish already did, and probably some other animal as well. It's a circle we get it clean it and return it, then we get it again... see it's still there.. Tree huggers what can we do?

Was this article written by someone in the toilet paper and/or paper towel business? It sounds like a tree must die every time someone uses the toilet.

Maybe someone should tell Tim's that they should provide handtowels as well as dryers in the interest of sanity.

forgot to say; just hip check the wheelchair buttom on your way out

when available use wheelchair button to open door so many people do not wash their hands before they leave

"
this is why i squat and pee... :-D i never ever sit on the seat...yuck!!
Submitted by Catastrophe007 on Thu, 2009-09-10 11:18pm."

I have no problem with people squatting, but ladies, if you are too prissy to sit down, please wipe off the toilet seat after you pee, so the rest of us don't have to deal with what you leave behind! (or even better, raise the seat, since you won't be sitting on it anyways!)

I am very enviromentally concious. I touch everything in a public bathroom! ohmigod! Then i sanitize after i've already touched the handle to the bathroom! wow, what a concept. For those of you wasting our water and killing our trees it's you we blame for our depletion of the earth's resources.

I am with PJ..as a woman, I am so sick and tired of going into a stall and seeing toilet paper or even worse pee on the seat from some idiot who has "hovered". I guess the rest of us can pick up your infections when we have to remove toilet paper or clean up your pee?

Misunderstanding can cause panic & fear. Always wash your hands. And ladies be careful where you rest your purse or bag.
I use to be a parttime caretaker, so I have seen some "interesting" things.

here is an ingenious thought from a female working retail who has to rely on public washrooms - how about putting the purell hand sanitizer container IN the stall?? that way everyone can do their business, cleanse, OPEN the door handle, wash non-contaminated hands and go about their day. If 95% of the germs are in the stall then why not purify in their. oh, and post a sign that if you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and lysol whipe the seatie.

So let's not waste water by flushing first. We can pull some toilet paper and put it in the toilet before we go. This will reduce backsplash unless your dropping the hindenberg(seek immediate medical treatment) the t/p is cheap and recycled.. check you hands after if you think I'm lying. thus eliminating the need for the pre flush!

Why can't we all jus get along

peace

this is why i squat and pee... :-D
i never ever sit on the seat...yuck!!

Out of interest, I recall a British study a few years ago that found that something like 95% of air hand dryers in public washrooms were contaminated. I always think of that, especially when I see someone turn the nozzle upward to blow on their face.

Some of the kids in my daughter's daycare got a staff infection from the toilet. It appeared on the kids bums. Lasted for quite awhile. Regular use of medicated cream helped it go away.

I always found it wierd that the handle for flushing is designed so closed to the toiletfixture that when you flush with your hand your face has to be so close to the toilet bowl that you practically having a bulleye moment with your own fecal matter. Blahhh..
Of course these days some better public washrooms has their automatic flush toilets.

The worst washrooms for fitlh and germs and mess are the ones without paper towel...............we keep seeing all the ads to wash your hands. The counter are flowing with water, you cannot even get near without wetting your clothes or bag
if there are paper towels you do not see this as people(most) use their towel to wipe up. Samewith taps/door handles, one uses the same towel they wiped on.
In a big city where I have used many washrooms in malls/coffee shops etc. I have found this to be a definite factor in the mess of a washroom. I just carry wipes and take no chances on air blowers which I cannot /would not use anyway. . . to those worried about paper waste, did you lose anyone in the Sars epedemic?

sometimes when you walk into a public washroom that has not been cleaned in only a matter of a few hours, it is the most disgusting site of unflushed toilets, feces dripping down the sides of toilets, sink water left running, wads of wet toilet paper on the floor, paper towels left all over the counter and the garbage (trash cans for you Americans) can is overflowing. If we live like this, it is no wonder germs travel from one to another. I often wonder when I see these bathrooms, if the people's bathrooms at home look like the public washrooms. Probably not, so why do this in public?????????

As a hospital employee (operating room R.N.), I am very well aware of the ease at which bacteria spread. These are all great suggestions, esp not touching the faucet handles or door handles with your freshly washed hands. I do all these and have taught my young daughter to as well. GREAT suggestions!!! And just ignore that guy who complained about the wasted paper, stay healthy!!! lol

To Cynical: what would you rather? waste water or waste your health??

Isn't there a problem with aerosols from the toilet bowl when it is flushed? If there is no lid to drop, I always use a foot to trip the handle, then beat it out of the cubicle before the flush completes. Better, I try to make it home.

That's brilliant Julie. Don't you realize that when you use your clothes to turn the faucet, any and all potential germs are now on your clothes until you wash them at some time in the future and you can transmit the germs you just picked up anywhere that piece of clothing touches you? If you have a brain and use your hands, you can immediately wash off the germs with soap and water. Geez, some people.

A good article, we need more all over the place on washrooms and hand washing. Sometimes I do have to use public washrooms and do find that they are maintained quite well. However, I do not touch anything directly with my hands, and as most washrooms do not have paper towels anymore I travel with my own and my own hand sanitizers.

I have always liked the whole "paper towel on the handles" idea but most public washrooms in my area have no paper towels, just a dryer. I find this so frustrating!

Flush the toilet before using it ?? Let's waste some more precious water !!

You know that Disability accesible washrooms aren't totally accepting of people with disabilities, because they only put a bar on one side, but what if the disabled person can't use that arm. He/She got to use whatever is nessisary, which is usually their pants, like I was wheelchair bound at one time. The most accesible washrooms I found were the ones with a fireman's pole stuck up about 2 (two) feet in fromt of the toilet.

Our paranoia is costing us in valuable resources. Think of the water wasted if everyone flushes before AND after use! Please! And do you really think that that thin, public washroom toilet paper is going to protect you from MRSA? If you are one of 'those', do me a favour, and remove said paper before you leave so that I don't have to touch it. Let's relax, shall we?Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in your purse or pocket; you'll live.

as someone who a) has taken microbiology and b) am in an environmental tech program, I am bothered by the ammount of waste created if everyone followed these suggestions. Paper to cover the seat, paper to touch the handle, paper to dry your hands, paper to turn off the tap, etc. We risk picking up bacteria and viruses anywhere we go. Wash your hands, get on with your day, and stop being so wasteful!

Apparently the author of this story has never see a public washroom like the kind you find in downtown Toronto........in that case, all these myths are true

After janitoring in malls for over 2 years, it was interesting to read this article. A lot of grossness about public washrooms can be reduced by people taking the time to clean up after themselves, and if they're having an issue with something mechanical, then ask for help. Use your common sense and be smart when out in public. You wouldn't leave your own washroom at home looking like a dump, so have respect for public property and keep public washrooms clean.

Please address the disgusting habit some women pass on to their daughters of pissing on the toilet seat rather than risking infection to themselves. Its disgusting unsanitary and revolting. A plague on them all says I!!!!