If you're like me, you avoid public restrooms at all costs, fearing catching an STD or anything else nasty. It was time to face my fear and research how likely all this is to get.

There's plenty of times I'm running around St. Cloud getting errands done for a few hours. Given that it can take 20 minutes to even get a couple blocks with all the lights and traffic we have, you end up needing to hit the bathroom!

I've scoured tons of medical opinion websites about this topic, including WebMD, and feel a little better about what I found out.

First of all, it's unlikely to catch a sexually transmitted disease from a toilet seat. You'd have to have an open wound on your rear-end that touches the seat IF there was anything like that on there. Pretty much the only way to get an STD on a toilet seat is if you actually have sex on a toilet seat with a person with an STD. That makes me feel much better to tell you the truth! It still doesn't change how I vigorously wipe the toilet seat down before I sit on it.

Catching a cold or flu type of sickness from touching anything in there. This is much more possible in a public restroom. It's possible even at home, but more likely in a restroom that have a large amount of traffic compared to your home bathroom. Here's how to generally come out healthy:

  • Just like I do, wipe the seat or use tissue between you and the seat before you sit.
  • Once the toilet flushes, get out of the stall immediately. Spores can become airborne from water spray that flies into the air.
  • Don't directly touch stall latches, flush levers, sink handles, or door knobs.
  • Thoroughly wash your hands with plenty of soap.
  • Wipe your hands dry and use a paper towel to open the door handle to leave the bathroom.

I'm not a huge fan of bathrooms with no paper towels and only use the roll towel machine or air dryers. This is because I can't use anything to open the door to leave without putting bacteria on myself.

Now that I am well educated on these points, I find it a little easier to use a public rest room. There's still a little bit of anxiety though - probably from sharing a bathroom with other people coming in and out, or the likelihood of walking into a stall where somebody obviously had chili recently and left the remnants of it everywhere but the inside of the toilet.

More From 103.7 The Loon