Coronavirus: pathogens linger in toilet for hours if you flush without closing lid – and some may still sneak through even if it is down, Hong Kong study finds
- Polluted droplets can follow air flow and be carried to other rooms in a home
- Running exhaust fan for 15 minutes will remove vast majority of airborne pathogens, study leader says
A toilet flush can release up to 80,000 polluted droplets and leave them suspended a metre in the air for hours if the lid is left up, a new study has found.
Alvin Lai Chi-keung, associate head of the department who led the year-long study, said while water droplets created in flushing might rise up to a metre if the toilet was not covered, international studies suggested polluted particles may still sneak through the gaps between the toilet and its lid, even if it was lowered before flushing.
“Covering the toilet lid while flushing is definitely essential, but it should not be considered a complete prevention,” he said.
Lai said he was not intending to add to public fear amid the outbreak of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, as his study was begun years ago.