Closing the Toilet Lid Before Flushing Won’t Protect Your From This

Scientists have known for a while now that flushing a toilet sends microscopic germs airborne, spewing them onto surfaces as far as five feet away.

Past studies have also found that closing the toilet lid before flushing helps reduce the spread of disease-spreading bacteria. But no one has known whether the same is true of viruses — until now.

As it turns out, closing the toilet lid before flushing doesn’t stop the spread of airborne disease-spreading viral particles, which tend to be much smaller.

A recent study by scientists from the University of Arizona and research firm Reckitt Benckiser found that viral particles are disseminated when a toilet is flushed — regardless of whether the lid is open or closed.

While the act of closing the lid may be mute when it comes to viruses, there’s still a way to minimize the amount of viral particles released into the air.

In a separate analysis of the effectiveness of cleaning a toilet with a disinfectant, the same researchers found that the following are effective methods for decreasing the spread of viral germs:

• Adding disinfectant to the toilet bowl before flushing.
• Using disinfectant dispensers in the toilet tank.
• Cleaning the toilet with a disinfectant and brush (which decreased the number of viral particles on the toilet by more than 99.99% and particles on the brush by 97.64%).

Cleaning with a brush alone left behind “substantial contamination.”

The scientists also concluded that when a member of a household is sick, particularly with a virus that causes stomach or intestinal symptoms, consistently using disinfectant before flushing can help reduce the spread of disease to other household members.

For their study, researchers planted viral particles in toilet bowls, flushed and collected samples from the toilet bowl water as well as the toilet, floor and walls.

Although they found no statistical difference between the presence of viral particles when the toilet lid was opened or closed, researchers did find the way these germs spread out was altered. The floor in front of and to the left of the toilet was more contaminated than the floor to the right side after flushing with the lid closed.

The study findings were published in the American Journal of Infection Control, a medical journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.