Flushing toilets can launch coronavirus droplets, study says, but there’s an easy fix
Flushing toilets could launch aerosol droplets nearly three feet into the air and cause disease spread, according to a new study published on Tuesday in the Physics of Fluids.
The study found that flushing toilets results in 40% to 60% of aerosol particles “reaching above the toilet seat, leading to large-scale virus spread,” the authors of the study wrote.
Other studies have indicated that the coronavirus could survive in toilets used by patients with COVID-19.
Viral RNA was found in “toilet areas” in a hospital in Wuhan, China, according to one study, The New York Times reported.
Samples collected from a toilet bowl and sink tested positive for coronavirus, indicating that the virus could possibly be transmitted through stools, according to a study published in Jama Network. The samples were collected over a two-week period from three coronavirus isolation rooms in Singapore.
The Physics of Fluids study used a volume-of-fluid model to simulate “two common flushing processes” to show how far the particles can go during flushing. The authors of the study recommended putting the lid down before flushing the toilet, cleaning the seat before each use, and washing hands after flushing.
Ji-Xiang Wang, who studies fluid dynamics at Yangzhou University and a co-author of the study, told The New York Times that she hopes bathroom design will be improved and that there will be more contactless soap dispensers and paper towels.
A 2013 study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Oklahoma found that pathogens and fecal matter can be flung into the air after the toilet is flushed without the lid, known as “toilet plume.”
Other studies have shown that E. coli is among the microscopic bacteria that can be spread by flushing the toilet with the lid up.
“The aerosols generated by toilets are something that we’ve kind of known about for a while, but many people have taken for granted,” Joshua L. Santarpia, a professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who wasn’t involved in the study, told The New York Times. “This study adds a lot of the evidence that everyone needs in order to take better action.”
It’s possible for people to get the coronavirus “by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Over 2 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus and more than 116,500 have died as of June 16, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Flushing toilets can launch coronavirus droplets, study says, but there’s an easy fix."