Are restroom handles contaminated with bacteria?

Question

this is for a science project

Answer 1

Yes. So are the walls and floors and faucets and ceilings ... that's what that smell is all about.
See, when toilets flush, they create a certain amount of spray (from the water that is contaminated with urine and feces) that becomes airborne as micro droplets that can drift quite a way before settling down ... usually on a cool surface like metal or tile or ceramic.
So wash your hands, dude, and don't touch that knob!

Answer 2

Not generally. It's a common misconception. Even toilet seats aren't that contaminated. When I had a micro-biology class we did cutures of random objects. I grew 4 petri dishes - one from a toilet seat swab, one from tthe batroom door, one from a drinking fountain spigot and one by scratching my head over the petri dish. Strangely enough, the first three had no real cultures and the one from my head had about a dozen different bacterial strains.

Now then, for a little more information: unless a person has a venereal disease or a urinary tract infection. Urine is sterile, and as clean as water - it just contains stuff your body doesn't want in it, mostly nitrogen compounds in the form or Uric acid. The Gi tract is full of bacteria, most notably e-coli but as long as there is toilet paper between the hand and the perineal area, the chance of contaminating that way is slight.

Washing hads after using the bathroom, even without soap (soap is useless unless you wash for a long time and give the soap a chance to lyse the bacteria [longer than 45 second]) the effect of the mechanical action of washing dislofges most bacteria. Do not bother with "anti-bacterial" soap - it is a rip off and if not used correctly (and most people don't) it does more harm that good by allowing super bacteria to evolve that are resistant to common anti-biotics.

And, since you can't be certain that the person before you washed before touching the handle/knob, always used the paper towel that you used to dry your hands to open the door, then dispose of the towel (lesson learned from Nursing school).

Answer 3

Yes, they are contaminated with bacteria as is the floor and most everyplace in the restroom. Another place that is horrid for bacteria are the grocery cart handles in a store. Wash your hands often; keep the antibacterial bottle in your purse or car and use it often. Also open the bathroom door with a paper towel.

Answer 4

Abosolutely, terribly, totally in public restrooms, not so badly @ home. Good idea to wash your hands leaving a restroom. Some experts advise not to touch door handle except w/ paper towel when leaving public restroom.

Answer 5

You may be certain that all door handles have some bacteria on them however due to the hard non-porous nature of door handles and the fact that they are exposed to open air and dry quickly, they apparently have fewer bacteria than one might expect...

Answer 6

Yes, they are, but for a science project you are going to need more than just answers from random people on a website. You are going to have to back it up with real research, either from papers a scientist has written or with an experiment of your own.

Answer 7

think of of it this manner, your butt is touching some thing that many different butts have touched. you do not understand if those butts are grimy, sickly or in spite of. Gross. Then there are ailments, some can carry around for a couple of minutes and reason you issues, crabs working example, would be on the seat top after somebody makes use of it and you waltz in and wager what? Tada! you're taking domicile some new little pals.

Answer 8

absolutely and totally. I always get a paper towel and use that to grab the door handle. If those annoying blow dryers are the only way to dry your hands use TP. I also never touch the hot/cold controls on the faucet when washing my hands or the soap dispenser, I use paper towel to touch everything.

Answer 9

I should think that a Madame Pipi would be less contaminated than most people since she is using disinfectant constantly to clean the toilets.

Answer 10

Yes,all over restroom.