Fecal Bacteria on Toothbrushes

Do all toothbrushes contain fecal bacteria if they're in the bathroom?

will fecal bacteria enter your mouth, every time you brush  ??

        Every time you flush a toilet, it releases an aerosol spray of tiny tainted water droplets. So if, like many people, you leave your toothbrush in the vicinity of a toilet, does that mean it's regularly bathed in bits of fecal matter?

       When you flush your toilet it does indeed result in water droplets traveling through the air. Have you ever flushed the toilet while sitting on it? Odds are you sometimes feel droplets of water hitting your bottom - and those droplets contain parts of whatever you are flushing. Similarly, a man who urinates standing up can produce similar droplets that travel outside the toilet, some of which he can feel if his legs and/or feet are bare. Anyone who has had the "pleasure" of cleaning on and around a toilet bowl knows that what is going in the toilet also goes outside the toilet.

       The spread of toilet water droplets is not limited to just those large enough to feel. Thanks to "the aerosol effect", a veritable cloud of tiny droplets travels far outside the toilet when it is flushed. The aerosol effect was first brought to light by University of Arizona environmental microbiologist Charles Gerba when he published a scientific article in 1975 describing the disturbing results of his tests on bacterial and viral aerosols due to toilet flushing. He conducted tests by placing pieces of gauze in different locations around the bathroom and measuring the bacterial and viral levels on them after a toilet flush. His results were more than a little disturbing: he found that the aerosols traveled as far as six to eight feet away from the toilet.

The Bacteria in Fecal Matter

 

            Fecal coliform bacteria are not a health risk at all. In fact, if they’re in poop, they are, almost by definition, already in the human body. However, fecal coliform grows in an environment similar to other waterborne bacteria, and so their presence outside of the body means that other bacteria like hepatitis A or dysentery can be present as well.

          The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tests the water supply for fecal coliform because its presence outside of the human body indicates a risk for the other pathogens mentioned above. If fecal coliforms are found in the water supply, that indicates a failure in the water purification process.

Do the Bacteria Get on Toothbrushes?

 

           Now still, the question remains. Does fecal bacteria get on the toothbrushes when people use the restroom?

           MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage uncovered the dirty truth to this myth by covering a bathroom with 24 toothbrushes, two of which they brushed with each morning — the others they simply rinsed every day for a month. 

           As experimental controls, the MythBusters kept two untainted toothbrushes in an office far away from the lavatory. At the end of the month-long trial, they sent their toothbrush collection to a microbiologist for bacterial testing. Astonishingly, all the toothbrushes were speckled with microscopic fecal matter, including the ones that had never seen the inside of a bathroom. The confirmed myth unfortunately proved that there's indeed fecal matter on toothbrushes — and also everywhere else. 

          The bottom line is that it is not a healthy idea to leave toothbrushes exposed in the bath room. Besides the fact that fecal matter can travel to exposed toothbrushes, exposed toothbrushes are more susceptible to multiple forms of bacteria, including dangerous ones. Toothbrushes should be covered and protected and the toilet lid should be closed before flushing. To better protect against the presence of bacteria and viruses, clean toothbrushes with an item like a UV device made for that purpose. Another very good idea would be using a natural antiseptic toothpaste product such a one which contains tea tree oil.

Preventive measures

 

• Close the toilet lid before flushing. This prevents the spray from spreading.
• Cover and protect your toothrush. A small plastic box should do the trick.
• Wash your toilet regularly. And remove soaps and toothbrushes from the bathroom before washing.
• Using a toothpaste with a natural antiseptic like tea tree oil is suggested.