Featured Image Credit: University of Colorado Boulder
Topics: News
Stewart Perrie
Incredible footage has revealed why you should shut the lid to your toilet every single time you flush.
While loads of people will happily leave the lid open for the world to see when they hit that button, many would be unaware of all the particles that get flung into the air when the flush is activated.
But you're probably sitting there thinking 'come on, how many particles are we talking about here'.
It's a valid question and the answer might shock or surprise you.
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Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder wanted to illustrate just how much goes up when most of the stuff that comes out of you goes down.
The particles that go into the air are so small that we can't usually see them with our puny eyes.
So, the team of researchers used lasers and special cameras to illustrate what's going on.
They found these droplets from the toilet shoot into the air at 2 meters (6.6 feet) per second and can reach 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) above the bowl within eight seconds.
While the heavier particles fell back down to the floor fairly quickly, the scientists clocked smaller droplets sitting in the air for several minutes.
So, even after you've done your business and left, there's still some elements of the toilet soup lingering around.
Imagine a busy public restroom and all those droplets in the air.
John Crimaldi, lead author of the study, said in a statement: “If it's something you can't see, it's easy to pretend it doesn't exist. But once you see these videos, you're never going to think about a toilet flush the same way again
“By making dramatic visual images of this process, our study can play an important role in public health messaging.”
He added: "People have known that toilets emit aerosols, but they haven't been able to see them.
"We show that this thing is a much more energetic and rapidly spreading plume than even the people who knew about this understood.”
Remember that next time you want to leave the toilet seat up.