For effective hand washing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wetting your hands with clean water, rubbing them with soap for at least 20 seconds, rinsing them, and then drying them. But most people do not wash their hands for long enough and public toilets are often without soap and paper towels. “Sometimes it’s also difficult to wash well, like in the airplane toilets with tiny sinks and water droplets, and it ‘s hard to avoid touching a surface afterwards,” said Dr. Gerba. After all the public toilets, “the best option is to wash your hands and then use hand sanitizer on the way out,” he said. Other tips to keep in mind: If you carry a bag or purse in a public toilet, avoid putting it on the floor, which is one of the dirtiest surfaces in a bathroom, said Dr. Gerba. Keep your phone away to avoid infection and try to avoid touching surfaces as much as you can, Dr. Donner recommended. Also consider closing the toilet lid before rinsing as a measure of public health and kindness to others. this step significantly reduces the toilet plume. One thing you do not need to worry about is catching a sexually transmitted infection in a toilet, Dr. Park said. “I’m not going to say it ‘s absolutely impossible, but it’ s so unlikely,” he said. Pathogens such as gonorrhea and chlamydia do not survive long on surfaces and must penetrate the penis or vagina to cause infection, he said. “Where we sit in the toilet seat, it just is not in the right neighborhood.” Alice Callahan is an Oregon-based health and science journalist and a frequent contributor to the New York Times.
