JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the public are advised to wash their hands each time they use the toilets. In the background is the restroom of the Mandela Park in Half-Way Tree.
Phyllis Thomas, Enterprise Editor
WITH PUBLIC attention focused on the double-digit inflation rates, impending increases in bus fares and light bills, and on the country's wade into corruption scandals, who is going to concern themselves with a simple matter like germs, for example, the amount of germs that people come in contact with when they use public restrooms?
Everyone should, however, as the study which the Scientific Research Council (SRC) conducted for The Sunday Gleaner on the cleanliness of public places revealed. The study showed that the handles of bathroom doors of some places that members of the public frequently used were quite dirty. The samples that were taken during low-usage periods did not find any significant risk of exposure to germs but the SRC said that this was no reason for people to drop their guard.
BE ON GUARD
The public places that the SRC selected included theatres, supermarkets, public parks and tertiary institutions in the Corporate Area. The inner- and outer-door handles of the restrooms as well as the handles of doors leading directly to the toilets, were checked to see how many germs were on them and whether it was likely that some of these could cause serious illnesses. The door handles of the bathrooms and individual closets were selected since these are handled routinely by the public, with users touching doors even after washing their hands. If they are contaminated by pathogens, the user is exposed to disease.
"Relative cleanliness can be very subjective," the SRC said. "For the purpose of comparison, however, we decided to consider a door handle dirty if we found more than 600 bacteria on it."
The SRC found 38 per cent of the door handles of the facilities at the parks, 36 per cent of the door handles of supermarket restrooms, eight per cent of those at the universities and six per cent of the ones at the theatres were contaminated by germs. At the same time, coliform bacteria - bacteria found in the gut - were found on more of the toilet doors at the universities than at the other public places in the study. The study found that there were coliform bacteria on 33 per cent of the door handles sampled at the universities; 25 per cent of those sampled at the theatres and nine per cent of the door handles of the supermarkets.
"This does not mean that members of the public do not need to be vigilant when using public bathrooms, this is far from the case," the SRC said.
SOAP WAS NOT AVAILABLE
"When we sampled some of the toilet seats, we found very high numbers of indicators - coliform bacteria. This means that anyone touching these seats could be exposed to pathogens. At one park, the public toilet was very dirty, cobwebs were everywhere and the place looked as if it had not got a proper cleaning in a while. Another, which was a little less dirty, wreaked of stale urine. These two were obviously poorly maintained and much higher counts would not have surprised (us). At some of the toilets that we went to, soap was not available for washing hands, and toilet paper was not available in all of the closets."
The study showed that the highest number of bacteria were found on a bathroom door in a supermarket. It found also that the doors leading directly to the toilets in the women's restrooms at one of the universities had much more bacteria than those of the men's. But Dr. Eustace Smith, a microbiologist, who was the lead researcher in the study said, how and when they were last cleaned and soiled could explain that situation.
The study of cleanliness of public facilities in the Corporate Area proved more difficult for the SRC than anticipated. Dr. Smith said that they encountered several challenges. He said many persons were reluctant to participate and one organisation required that the SRC attend a meeting with several senior managers to explain what they were doing before giving permission to include their facility in the survey.
"Another organisation gave permission but when we arrived we were admonished for not informing them more precisely when we would come to perform the sampling," he said. And while taking samples from another location, "a cleaner/ attendant became abusive and indicated that she was quite unhappy with us for sampling the bathroom that she was responsible for cleaning."
PROTECT YOURSELF
To protect yourself from the germs to which you may be exposed when you use public restrooms, the SRC is advising that you:
Need to be very wary when using public toilets.Wash your hands after using them. (If people wash their hands after using the facility, our results indicate that they need not fear handling the door handles).Keep soap and tissue available for bathroom emergencies.Touch toilet seats at a minimum and ensure that hands are washed scrupulously with soap and water after any contact has been made with them.Properly supervise young children when they use public toilets to ensure they do so safely.
