With the kids who already go to the bathroom alone, we must be careful when we are away from home and enter a bathroom. Even if at first glance it seems to be clean (which is not always the case, when we go out to a corner of the street for "trouble"), germs hide everywhere.
Actually, if we looked at the bathroom at home we would also see much more dirt and germs than the naked eye. But, nothing more than by frequency of use, in a public restroom we usually tell the kids "Do not touch anything of this toilet".
This concern means that more and more products are used in bathrooms without touching: faucets, soap dispensers, wastebaskets ...
We are not very misguided, and there are studies that show that most adults appreciate the faucets or automatic dryers, open the knobs with the elbow, touch the toilet with paper (and wrap it in paper to sit), pull the chain too on paper…
Children do not understand germs, and in their eagerness to explore they touch what they have in front of them without stopping to think that many germs that threaten health are present in public baths in different grades, from Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, E. Coli, virus Hepatitis A ... until the common cold virus. But, Where are these germs mostly? Can't we touch anything?
Bath seats: Although most users of public toilets consider the seat to be the main germ center, it is not a common vehicle for disease transmission. If a seat becomes contaminated, a user would have to have an open cut or scar in the area that contacted him for the contagion to occur. Even portable toilets, according to a study by a Microbiologist at the University of Arizona, were cleaner than picnic tables, garden equipment, supermarket cart handles and stair rails.
Bath steam. Although the seat can be relatively safe, this is not always true of the vapors thrown by the toilet. Each time the chain is pulled and the water is discharged, microscopic vapors are thrown out of the cup. These vapors can contain many germs and bacteria (depending on the type of bath, water pressure, age and texture) up to a meter and a half around the toilet. So it is best to pull the chain whenever the child has risen from the toilet.
Keys and handles. Germs are grouped in the handles and a bathroom faucet could be the most polluted surface of a public restroom. One reason for this is that surface moisture helps keep microorganisms alive. Keys with sensor systems or the use of paper towels to touch these surfaces can help alleviate this problem. It seems that, almost never, users actually touch the keys of a bathroom. The question arises: if we wash our hands to turn off the faucet manually and then open the door also with our hand, hasn't the washing maneuver been useless?
Waste units for feminine hygiene products. They are usually the attraction of the kids in the public bathroom. But there are compelling reasons to avoid touching these dispensers. A study by the American Society of Microbiology established that "the outside of a sanitary napkin receiver is one of the most polluted points in a women's bathroom." Feminine hygiene dispensers become contaminated when used again and again in addition to receiving bath fumes.
After seeing public toilets from this perspective, gloves for use or some inventions for girls to pee stand up don't seem like a bad option.
In short, it is not about being paranoid, but about taking some precaution and teaching children to The less they touch the toilet, the better. And, of course, to demand in the public places the necessary cleaning because many times the elders would also have preferred to be children to be able to do it in the street ...
