Did you know?

• A Food Safety Information Council (Canberra, 2002) study of 200 people at public toilets in a food hall environment showed 29% of men and 8% of women still don't wash their hands after using the toilet (Australian Food Safety Information Council, Canberra http://www.foodsafety.asn.au/.
  
• The same study revealed that of the remaining people in the survey who made an attempt to clean their hands, an incredible 80% of women and 93% of men didn't wash their hands properly.
  
• Flushing toilets 'sneeze' dirty water and faecal bacteria over toilet seats, toilet paper, seat covers, handles and into the air in the washroom, to produce a bacterial fall-out over several hours (and 1 million plus bacteria remain in the toilet water until the next flush).
  
• Bacteria ejected from the toilet during flushing will fall-out on surfaces throughout the washroom for several hours.
  
• Bacteria in flush water droplets splash on and under the toilet seat waiting to come into contact with the skin and hands of the next user.
  
• On average we visit the washroom 6-8 times per day.
  
• Salmonella bacteria have been known to survive on bathroom surfaces for as long as 4 weeks;
  
• Going to the toilet can result in a significant increase in the bacteria on your hands. Washing and drying your hands after using the toilet reduces the number of bacteria by up to 80%.
  
• Research indicates that the most important requirements of a washroom are cleanliness and a fresh pleasant smell.
  
• If your toilet looks dirty then it is probably due to biofilm, which forms on the flushed surfaces.
  
• This film is up to 20 microns (2/100 mm) thick and contains up to 10,000 bacteria per square cm.
  
• Flushing does little to remove biofilm, in fact, the toilet bowl water usually contains tens of thousands of bacteria, some of which come from the biofilm and some from faecal residues.
  
• An average man has about 1kg of bacteria (about the same weight as a bag of sugar) living in their colon and typical women would have about 800g.
  
• What is bio-plaque? Bio-plaque is the accumulation of bacteria, microorganisms and their products which sticks to toilet surfaces.
  
• Flushing produces very small droplets or aerosols as well as splashes that land on the seat.
  
• These aerosols will contain faecal bacteria and will float on natural air currents out of the cubicle and land on surfaces all around the washroom.
  
• Bio-plaque is like a nano-rainforest being a community of many different bacteria species. Food poisoning bacteria such as Salmonella have been isolated from biofilm in toilets up to 4 weeks after the diarrhea was known to have stopped.
  
• Human faeces contains up to a third of its weight as bacteria, which is a staggering 1,000 billion (1,000,000,000,000) bacterial cells.
  
• Most bacteria will not survive for very long on dry surfaces. Frequent toilet flushing ensures that toilet surfaces are an ideal surface for bacterial colonisation.
  
• Urine, although a waste product for humans, is a perfect food source for bacteria. Bacteria break down the nitrogen containing compounds and produce ammonia as a waste product, which is all too often an unpleasant washroom smell.
  
• The hand-to-mouth route is one of the most likely ways that faecal bacteria enter our body and cause infection.
  
• Many washroom surveys have found that most users do not wash their hands and when they do, it is often not thoroughly, resulting in missed areas and damp hands.
  
• Damp hands have been shown to transfer many more bacteria (1,000 times) than dry hands to surfaces.

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