Can Covering The Toilet Seat Protect You From Germs And Bacteria?

Are you a germaphobe who always covers the toilet seat with paper in the public toilets? You think that it protects you from germs and bacteria and prevents you from catching some wretched disease from the person before you? Nobody really knows how this habit came to be, but many people are practicing it regularly. However, it seems as if the only thing you’re doing with this habit is providing comfort and reassurance to yourself, but noting more, according to infectious disease specialist Dr. William Schaffner.

The toilet seats cannot transmit any infectious disease so you can’t basically catch anything from them. It was long believed that they can transfer gastrointestinal or sexually transmitted infections but that belief has been refuted by many studies since. It’s not that there are no bacteria like E-coli or streptococcus on the toilet seats, but the skin on our behind serves as a protective barrier against all those disease causing bacteria. So unless you have an open sore on your behind, you’re safe. The bottom line is that it makes no difference whether you cover the seat or not.

You should be more worried about the cutting board or sponge in your kitchen because they contain about 200,000 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat. Or the door knobs in the toilet since many people who haven’t washed their hands are touching it and transferring bacteria and germs to innocent victims.

What does make a difference then? How can you protect yourself from catching something in the public loo? Science says wash your hands with regular soap and warm water as often as you can, in order to prevent transferring the germs from your hands to your mouth or other parts on your body. The CDC says that regular hand-washing can decrease the diarrheal disease-related deaths by 50%.

Here’s an interesting video which explains in detail why not covering the toilet seat is completely safe and shouldn’t concern you at all.