Can Toilet Seat Covers Intercept Toilet Plumes?

The Challenge: How to reduce the powerful microscopic wastewater spray of the Toilet Volcano?

Can a simple toilet seat cover solve this dangerous risk to our health? The familiar whoosh of toilet flushing is a routine part of daily life. However, one thorough study of “toilet plumes,” also known as the “toilet volcano,” reveals that more is happening during a flush than meets the eye and can negatively impact your health.

What Really Happens When You Flush?

In a study at the University of Colorado Boulder scientists discovered, using lasers and high-speed cameras, that flushing lidless toilets ejects a significant amount of aerosolized particles into the air. These tiny droplets can carry dangerous pathogens like Legionella, noroviruses, E. coli, and C. difficile, potentially spreading diseases in public bathrooms.

By setting up lasers over a commercial, lidless* toilet, the researchers could illuminate the invisible spray of particles ejected during a flush. The findings were alarming.

Waste particles reached heights of nearly five feet in under eight seconds and traveled at speeds of up to 6.6 feet per second!

The results highlight how aerosolized droplets could be inhaled by unsuspecting bathroom-goers, potentially transmitting illnesses long after an infected individual has used the restroom. This is especially concerning in public restrooms, where lidless toilets are the norm, allowing for the free dispersal of these plumes, sometimes referred to as a toilet volcano.

What Does This Mean for Public Health?

This study illuminates a largely invisible, significant health hazard. It's not just about what's going down the toilet—it's about what's coming up. The particles primarily travel upwards and towards the wall behind the toilet but can move in multiple directions, reaching walls, ceilings, and the rest of the room.

The researchers suggest that public restroom design consider these findings, encouraging improvements in ventilation and disinfection systems and perhaps even changes in toilet mechanics. Yet, until those innovations become standard, what can be done to reduce the risk?

Can Toilet Seat Covers Help?

While a simple toilet seat cover is not a complete solution to this challenge, we can speculate that a product we already use to protect ourselves in public restrooms may lessen the distance that the spray can fly.

Hospeco Brands Group disposable toilet seat cover is designed to serve as a barrier against direct contact with toilet seats. However, is it possible that this self-flushing paper seat cover may diminish the potential spread of particles during a flush? They do fill some of the space between the toilet seat and the wastewater during the flush.

How Self-Flushing Toilet Seat Covers Work

The force of water from the flush grabs the seat cover flap that rests inside the bowl, and pulls the rest of the 16.75" x 14.25" cover down into the water on top of any waste that has passed through the flap opening.

While seat covers alone can't catch all the aerosolized spray, it is likely that some of the particles will get trapped in the swirling paper cover as it is pulled down.

Perhaps our trusty toilet seat cover can help fight the dreaded toilet volcano while they build a better toilet!

The Future of Public Restroom Safety

This groundbreaking study offers valuable insight into the unseen hazards of flushing toilets. With this knowledge, restroom design and hygiene protocol innovations are likely on the horizon. Whether it's improved ventilation systems, changes in toilet engineering, or broader adoption of "hands-free" fixtures and dispensers, the findings from the University of Colorado Boulder's study will undoubtedly shape how we think about bathroom safety in the future. In the meantime, the humble toilet seat cover is budget-friendly and makes shared public bathrooms safer.

*The lidless toilet is the single most popular toilet in commercial spaces, schools, offices, entertainment venues, and recreational settings because it lacks a lid. Lidless toilets can be cleaned faster with less possibility of damage to moving parts—no doubt a selling point. This fact makes toilet seat covers a natural addition to hygienic restroom efforts.

Thought Provoking?

Contact a Hospeco Brands Representative today to discuss how these findings may affect your business.