PSA: For maximum hygiene, close the lid BEFORE you flush.
Mythbusters found it makes no difference in the spread of fecal matter. Toilet lids aren’t perfect seals.
Do you have a source? I googled it and this site said that Mythbusters found the opposite - https://www.theplumbingauthority.com/blog/2019/february/mythbusters-plumbing-edition/#:~:text=%234 You should close your toilet lid before flushing&text=Mythbusters did an episode about,your bathroom%2C including your toothbrush.
Not how it works, sorry to tell you. In fact, putting the lid down means you are keeping those particles airborne for another 11 minutes or so due to increased pressure with the lid down.
Do you have a source? I googled it and every site listed said you should close the lid. The only one that didn’t was the New York Post, which is a famously inaccurate and overly contrarian news source.
I’d say this is still up for debate. From the papers I skimmed it might be better to close the lid and open the windows. I discussed this in another comment here: https://feddit.de/comment/5298414
People usually see the initial drop of visible particles to mean closing the lid is better but it just causes the mist to aerosol more into nano particles when the lid is closed. I don’t have the study itself handy at the moment, let me dig a bit more but I did find this article which was referencing similar findings. Let me try and find the paper itself though, but in the meantime here is a small except about the study from a site that was promoting the conference where it was presented at:
Plus if you drop anything in the bathroom and the lid is up it’s ending up in the toilet, learned that one morning when I was about to brush my teeth, that’s when I became a dedicated kid closer
dedicated kid closer
“Listen, I just know you’re going to love this play set; and what a deal you’re getting on it, too!”
My braces single elastic band one time landed perfectly in the toilet bowl. At work, lol.
Flushing after closing the lid is actually hygienic.
May I interest you in a (not toilet) paper I skimmed back when Covid was still a bigger issue? https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0013318
In another, newer, paper (again, not the toilet kind of paper) I just found, researchers basically used lasers to see and analyze the spread of aerosol plumes after flushing: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24686-5
I am not interested in your (not toilet) papers. I’ve been doing fine so far and I believe that the health benefit is negligible and does not outweigh the impact on my quality of life.
In other words sometimes ignorance is bliss and knowledge can be a curse, I’m not trying to be a neat freak germaphobe.
I always flush with the lid down. Keeps less in the air.
Hate to break it to you, toilets aren’t airtight. The particles go right out the side and tend to last longer in the air when the lid is down. It’s creates a reduction in visible particles as it seems the lid causes bigger particles to form so ergo less “visible particles” but they are just bigger and last longer for some reason versus the smaller ones. As has been demonstrated by the Mythbusters and many other studies, the biggest factor is having proper ventilation otherwise your gonna find shit particles everywhere regardless of if you close the lid or not.
For reducing visible particles, not the nano particles which have a higher concentration. Regardless it’s all kinda moot as neither produce levels of bacteria that could realistically get you sick unless you stick your face above the bowl or to the side openings by the lid while flushing and that person has an infecfion. Just wanted to clarify the science behind it.
That’s not making sense to me. Would you be willing to find your sources? Larger particles would not spend more time in the air as far as I know. It’s almost like you’re claiming it’s better to sneeze wild straight out everywhere instead of into your elbow, handkerchief, or tissue.
Why don’t these things have more of a seal by now? It’s supposed to be the future.
But that applies to most commercial toilets with high flow rate. Most home toilets don’t do much more than let gravity do the work. There’s no aerosolized particles, just a few splashes or droplets that may escape
Home toilets use the bowl filling up to create a siphon through the drain trap. For that to work your toilet must first raise the water level above the top of the trap to create the pressure with its weight to start the siphon. I.e with the lid closed you are forcing more air to compress in a smaller volume generating a pressure difference outside the bowl and internally. Leave the lid open and that volume of air goes directly into the room without much resistance creating less pressure in the bowl compared to the surrounding air in the room. Hence with the lid open the distance, the spray travels is lower as it has a lower velocity.
The reduced airspeed of the shit particles thanks to the closed lid slows the buildup of shit particles on bathroom surfaces enough for my regular cleaning to be sufficient
The closed lid increases air speed, not decreases it as you create a higher build up of pressure 🤦♂️
Honestly don’t worry, as Mythbusters pointed out that neither are a health concern due to the low concentration relatively speaking and if anything it helps your immune system build up defenses against E coli and the like. Just know lid up during your flush means the sent lingers less. Then after the flush I would advise closing the lid to keep any lingering sent in the air of the toilet bowl and less likely to be disturbed by any airflow in the room. Just don’t like seeing misleading info spread around as honestly the science behind it is pretty interesting.
Plus, it’s more mysterious and potentially surprising.
