This video will be on your mind next time you flush the toilet and there is no doubt you are going to be changing how you behave.
Germs are basically everywhere, all the time and trying to get inside you. Yup, there is no escape, but thankfully your immune system gets to work and stops germs from doing any serious damage and keeps you in good health.
With that said, even if there aren't exactly any noticeable impacts from these germs, knowing they are getting in your mouth, hands, eyes is still a bit gross.
And this video of what happens when you flush the toilet without closing the lid will definitely make you shudder.
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The video from Science X: Phys.org, Medical Xpress, Tech Xplore on YouTube shows exactly what happens and you will likely ALWAYS be closing the lid from now on.
Funnily enough, there has been research done into this elsewhere in the scientific community.
The TikTok page, DIYMAN_PRO, did a more in depth experiment showing just how many germs escape when you flush.
The researcher behind it places a green laser on the toilet seat and records the moment the toilet is flushed and the thousands of germs from the water breaking through the laser.
In a second experiment they pour a neon liquid directly into the toilet tank, waits for it to mix and then again presses the flusher which shows just how far the 'poo particles' can reach by using a black light to uncover this.
The ultraviolet light showed that germs manage to escape from the toilet and onto almost everything around it - including toothbrushes!
But wait... there's more.
John Crimaldi, who in 2022 was a professor of engineering at the University of Colorado, undertook a similar study.
He told Business Insider the team’s ‘jaw dropped’ when they first saw the experiment as he had ‘no idea and no reason to believe’ they would carry as high and as wide as they did.
Writing in the study, which was published here, the researchers noted: “Our results demonstrate the surprisingly energetic and rapid growth of aerosol plumes from a commercial toilet and highlight the chaotic nature of the fluid kinematics that transport the particles.”
Crimaldi said his footage could change people’s perceptions of traditional toilets, and says he’s already started looking at them ‘suspiciously now’.
He told the publication: "You go to the bathroom, you flush the handle, the stuff disappears, you're like: 'boom, works great!'
"Then you look at the videos that we took and you're like: 'oh, maybe not so great!'
"I can tell you this has fundamentally changed my relationship with toilets. I look at them suspiciously now."
Topics: Health
Gerrard Kaonga