Don’t let this bit of bathroom science scare you—Uncle John spends lots of time in there and he’s just fine…almost.
IT’S A GUSHER!
When you flush the toilet, everything goes down the drain, right? Wrong. Minuscule water droplets containing more than 25,000 virus-carrying particles fly out of the toilet bowl and into the air. They hover for a few hours in your bathroom and then finally touch down on all surfaces near the toilet. That means they land on your soap, your washcloth, your towel, and even your toothbrush!
PUT A LID ON IT
You could put the top down before you flush… but it won’t help. The next time you lift the lid, a lot of those virus-carrying water particles will still float up into the air.
So what can you do? Put a chlorine tablet in the toilet bowl (it will kill some of the germs) and keep your toothbrush in the medicine cabinet, not on top of the sink. And the next time you brush your teeth, run your toothbrush under hot water first. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the gross germs in your toilet, though—there are far more dangerous germs on a kitchen sponge or cutting board…but that’s another story.
The loudest insect is the African cicada—it’s almost as loud as an airplane taking off.