New research has found the possible transmission of COVID-19 in public toilets.
A team of scientists from the Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is now investigating the spread of microbes containing aerosol droplets after a person flushed a toilet or urinal in a public restroom.
Based on the study, the researchers found that the droplets from flushed toilets were detected to reach the height of up to five feet (1.5 metres) for 20 seconds or longer after flushing.
Apart from that, researchers also found that microbes still go into the air even if you flush the toilet with its cover.
“After about three hours of tests involving more than 100 flushes, we found a substantial increase in the measured aerosol levels in the ambient environment with the total number of droplets generated in each flushing test ranging up to the tens of thousands,” study co-author Siddhartha Verma said.
“Both the toilet and urinal generated large quantities of droplets smaller than three micrometers in size, posing a significant transmission risk if they contain infectious microorganisms. Due to their small size, these droplets can remain suspended for a long time,” the researcher added.
Canada previously published a research about traces of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in wastewater.
“The significant accumulation of flush-generated aerosolized droplets over time suggests that the ventilation system was not effective in removing them from the enclosed space even though there was no perceptible lack of airflow within the restroom,” one of the researchers added.
