Toilet Seat Up or Down?

      This is a common argument that has been going on for generations. He leaves the seat up and she want the seat down. Who gets their way and how do we prevent the problem.

      I have always insisted on the lid remaining down. The reason is health and hygiene. It is documented and it is important. 

In an article published in 2012, Scientists at Leeds University tested the air above toilets and found that the germ, C. difficile, which causes violent bacteria and vomiting, can be emitted up to 20cm from the toilet with every open flush. These germs were found on the sides of the toilet and on the floor—even when the toilet wasn’t in use. In other words, even an unoccupied, open bowl can spread bacteria.

         Although the highest levels of bacteria are found right after a flush, even ninety minutes later, contaminated water droplets can be detected on nearby surfaces—which means you may want to think twice about where you’re leaving your toothbrush. This also affects all bathroom surfaces, taps, bottles, tissues, anything and everything left on the bathroom is contaminated if the toile lid remains up.

The best way to prevent the spread of these bacteria is to keep the lid closed! Studies have found that this can reduce the spread of bacteria by ten times. If someone in your family has come down with a nasty bug, clean all areas of the toilet and keep the lid down, not just the seat. Having a lid up at any time on a toilet, except when using it, is dangerous to our health.

According to Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of microbiology at University of Arizona in Tucson, flushing the toilet with the lid up is not wise. “Polluted water vapor erupts out of the flushing toilet bowl and it can take several hours for these particles to finally settle — not to mention where,” he says. “If you have your toothbrush too close to the toilet, you are brushing your teeth with what’s in your toilet.” (webmd.com/…/germs-in-bathroom)

If you care about the health and hygiene of yourself and others in your home, then keep the seat and lid down and closed. It takes about two seconds of your time to lift up or place down the toilet seat and lid.  Care enough about your health, even if you have a toilet in a separate room, place the lid down. Airborne bacteria travels.

If you clean the toilet seat regularly with a disinfectant then who cares if you need to lift the lid or place it down, after all I am sure we all wash our hands after visiting the toilet, so the argument I hear about ‘I’m not touching it, it’s dirty’ falls very short. With the lid up the whole room is dirty; the toilet paper has airborne germs resting on it, as does the tap and the door handle. Place the lid down, wash after touching and use, and then everyone is healthier and happier. Problem finally solved.

This then applies to all woman and men; it is not just a man issue. Men usually seem to keep the seat up while woman want the seat down. Both persons however are failing to shut the actual lid and this is the problem. So both men and woman need to be more attentive for the health of themselves, their children and visitors.

Then the other area of conflict is when the male urinates leaving the seat down, he can dribble urine and the woman then uses the toilet with the seat down to find urine on it. Men should in fact lift the toilet seat when urinating; after all do they want to sit on urine dribble?

Fact is the seat may be a bit dirty but more than likely cleaner than your toothbrush, taps and items on your bathroom bench if the lid has been up, and that hasn’t worried you to date. We should all be washing our hands well after using the toilet anyway so if the toilet lid is ‘dirty’, you will be washing your hands after lifting the lid and seat and placing them back down anyway, so really – does it matter?

Simple – Put a lid on it!!!